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^^^py-n  ^  y>i-:  T^Ac^j' 


BRIEF  SURVEY 


OF  THE 


GREAT  EXTENT  AND  EVIL  TENDENCIES 


OF  THE 


LOTTERY  SYSTEM, 


AS  EXISTING  IN  THE 


UNITED  STATES. 


PUBLISHED  BY  ORDER   OF  A    MEETING  OF  CITIZENS  OF  PHILADELPHIA,  FAVOURABLE   TO  THE 
ENTIRE  ABOLITION  OF  LOTTERIES. 


PiClatrrHjftCa: 

WILLIAM  BROWN,  PRINTER. 

1833. 


• «  »    • 


At  a  meeting  of  a  number  of  citizens  of  Philadelphia  friendly  to  the 
entire  abolition  of  Lotteries,  held  on  the  12th  day  of  January,  1833, 
an  Essay  was  presented  and  read  by  Job  R.  Tyson,  Esq.  who  had 
prepared  it  in  compliance  with  a  previous  request,  upon  the  history, 
extent,  and  pernicious  consequences  of  that  species  of  gambling. 

Whereupon  it  was  Resolved,  That  five  thousand  copies  of  said  Essay 
be  printed,  for  gratuitous  distribution  through  the  United  States. 

(Signed)  THOMAS  C.  JAMES,  Chairman. 

Attest. — John  M.  Atwood,  Secretary. 


iVilS9361 


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in  2007  with  funding  from 

IVIicrosoft  Corporation 


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A  BRIEF  SURVEY,  &c. 


Gambling,  by  means  of  the  lottery,  is  not  of  very  mo- 
-dern  origin.  Though  it  has  been  tolerated,  and  even  fos- 
tered by  Christian  communities,  it  dates  its  birth  so  far  back 
as  a  remote  period  in  the  history  of  the  Romans.  The 
.uses  to  which  it  was  applied  are  faithfully  delineated  by 
Menestrier,  a  Jesuit  father,  who  published  the  result  of 
his  researches  about  the  close  of  the  seventeenth  century. 
As  it  is  not  necessary  to  trace  its  existence,  or  ascertain  its 
effects,  in  Pagan  lands,  let  us  scan  it  in  its  consequences 
nearer  our  own  day,  when  the  meridian  sun  of  Christianity 
is  dispensing  his  genial  rays  for  the  illumination  and  im- 
provement of  the  world. 

I  The  Christian  world  is  indebted  to  the  republic  of  Genoa 
for  suggesting  the  idea  of  resorting  to  the  lottery  as  a  mea- 
sure of  finance.  Its  introduction  into  Great  Britain  was 
early,  being  nurtured  by  the  paternal  hand  of  government 
as  a  happy  expedient  for  raising  money  upon  the  principle 
of  voluntary  taxation.  The  first  lottery  mentioned  in  the 
English  history,  was  established  in  1567;  and  Maitland  of 
Stowe,  informs  us  that,  in  1569,  two  years  after  its  com- 
mencement, there  were  but  three  lottery  offices  in  the 
kingdom.  A  few  years  sufficed  to  produce  an  enormous 
accession  to  the  number,  and  divers  statutes  were  enacted, 
to  assuage,  by  restrictions  and  penalties,  the  malignity  of 
their  influence.  But  no  emollient  was  equal  to  the  emer- 
gency of  its  purpose ;  a  new  genius  awoke  into  being,  com- 
petent to  evade,  by  dexterity  and  stratagem,  the  provisions 
of  each  new  law.     At  length  its  enormity  had  become  too 


c    *    ,t    c 


obvious  and  crying  to  be  longer  withstood  without  a  serious 
inquiry  into  the  measures  which  had  been  employed  for  its 
palliation.  That  inquiry  was  made^  and  on  the  re- 
commendation of  a  Committee  of  the  House  of  Commons, 
new  guards  were  applied.  Still  checks  were  found  to  be 
but  temporary  alleviations,  which,  like  most  remedies  of 
that  nature,  produced  the  effect  of  giving  false  security  to 
the  patient,  rather  than  efficacy  in  counteracting  the  dis- 
ease. Nothing  less  than  the  total  abolition  of  the  system, 
was  capable  of  expelling  a  poison  so  deeply  seated  and  per- 
vading. 

It  may  well  be  supposed,  that  if  it  prevailed  in  England 
when  this  country  was  colonized,  the  policy  would  be  ob- 
servable in  acts  relating  to  its  early  settlement.  Accord- 
ingly, the  second  lottery  granted  by  Parliament  was  author- 
ised in  the  reign  of  the  first  James,  for  carrying  on  the 
colonization  of  Virginia.  The  prevalence  of  lotteries  in 
the  United  States,  has  since  continued,  notwithstanding 
their  extinction  in  the  country  from  which  they  were  im« 
ported.  Legislative  sanction  may  here  be  seen  given  to  a 
vice,  under  the  various  pretences  of  excavating  canals,  and 
building  bridges,  as  well  as  for  the  construction  of  edifices 
erected  for  the  solemn  purposes  of  worshipping  God !  Un- 
happy, indeed,  that  pious  professors  should  consent  deeply 
to  injure  the  cause  of  religion  and  morality  with  the  osten- 
sible view  of  aiding  their  promotion ! 

But  whoever  has  been  instrumental  in  the  diffusion  of 
lottery  grants  in  the  United  States,  the  objects  to  which 
they  have  been  applied  are  not  more  multifarious  than  their 
number  and  amount  have  been  overwhelming.  There  now 
exist,  in  the  different  states,  no  less  than  twelve  or  fourteen 
lotteries  which  claim  the  authority  of  legal  sanction  for  their 
origin.  What  the  amounts  hazarded  in  a  single  week 
may  be,  it  is  difficult  to  calculate  with  any  thing  like  accu- 


racy.  That  it  is  even  prodigious  in  amountj  may  be  pre- 
sumed from  the  fact,  that  in  the  single  State  of  New  York, 
schemes  have  been  issued,  since  the  adoption  of  her  new 
Constitution,  to  the  enormous  sum  of  thirty-seven  mil- 
lions of  dollars.  In  Pennsylvania,  schemes  issued  under 
the  authority  of  seven  other  states,  are  illicitly  vended  to 
an  incredible  amount.  It  could  not  have  been  anticipated 
by  the  provincial  assembly  of  1762,  when  it  prohibited  lot- 
teries with  so  striking  a  preamble  as  the  following,  that  a  few 
years  would  witness  their  multiplication  to  such  an  extent: 
/^Whereas,  many  mischievous  and  unlawful  games,  called 
lotteries,  have  been  set  up  in  this  province,  which  tend  to 
the  manifest  corruption  of  youth,  and  the  ruin  and  impo- 
verishment of  many  poor  families;  and  whereas,  such  per- 
nicious practices  may  not  only  give  opportunities  to  evil 
disposed  persons  to  cheat  and  defraud  the  honest  inhabitants 
of  this  province,  but  prove  introductive  of  vice,  idleness, 
and  immorality,  injurious  to  trade,  commerce,  and  industry, 
and  against  the  common  good,  welfare,  and  peace  of  this 
province,  ^c."  This  preamble  shows  the  sentiments  of  the  ; 
colonists  in  regard  to  the  evil  itself;  it  is  denounced  in  the 
body  of  the  act  as  ^^a  public  and  common  nuisance;'^  the 
sale  of  a  ticket  is  prohibited  under  the  penalty  of  twenty 
pounds;  and  the  forfeitures  incurred  by  infraction,  are 
given  to  the  Overseers  of  the  Poor.  This  act,  in  display- 
ing the  domestic  feelings  of  the  colonists  at  an  early  period, 
likewise  demonstrates  the  foreign  origin  of  the  lottery  sys- 
tem. But  this  is  more  distinctly  proved  by  its  language, 
which  expressly  excepts  from  the  operation  of  the  statute, 
"all  state  lotteries  erected  and  licensed  by  act  of  Parlia- 
ment in  Great  Britain.^'  There  is  no  doubt,  that  the  pa- 
rent country  taught  her  imitative  offspring  to  legitimate 
the  lottery,  by  pointing  out  the  uses  which  it  might  sub- 
serve.    This  fact  informs  us,  what  is  by  no  means  unim- 


8 


portant,  that  the  lottery  is  not  indigenous  to  this  soil ;  that 
it  did  not  spring  up  in  this  country,  the  result  of  necessity 
or  the  dictate  of  pecuniary  expediency ;  but,  that  our  pro- 
genitors condemned  it  as  a  mischievous  and  unlawful  ^awc,* 
and  opposed  to  their  religious  sensibilities  and  moral  sen- 
timents. They  pronounced  it  detrimental  to  youth  and 
ruinous  to  the  poor — the  source  of  fraud  and  dishonesty — 
alike  hurtful  to  industry,  commerce,  and  trade — as  it  was 
baneful  to  the  interests  of  good  citizenship,  morality,  and 
virtue.  Let  us  take  a  rapid  survey  of  its  tendency  as  a 
public  measure,  and  of  the  operation  of  its  effects  upon 
those  who  come  within  the  sphere  of  its  influence,  both  as 
the  source  of  pecuniary  emolument  or  ruin  to  its  votaries, 
and  as  a  meritorious  instrument  of  adventure,  or  the  means 
of  idleness,  dissipation,  licentiousne^^s,  and  crime. 

As  a  public  measure,  it  must  be  regarded  in  the  shock- 
ing aspect  of  its  noxious  and  destructive  character  to  the 
individual,  considered  as  a  member  of  civil  society.  Most 
governments  recognise  the  importance  of  good  disposi- 
tions and  industrious  habits  as  indispensable  ingredients  in 
the  composition  of  a  worthy  citizen.  This  at  least  is  the 
theory,  and  in  most  cases,  the  tendency  of  the  practice  of 
most  governments  which  are  founded  on  the  principles  of 
civil  freedom  and  social  equality.  When  we  encourage 
industry  or  reward  genius,  when  we  establish  institutions 
of  learning  or  give  birth  to  those  of  benevolence,  we  in- 
tend to  repress  idleness  and  vice,  and  to  bring  into  exer- 
cise the  better  dispositions  of  the  mind  and  heart.  Every 
country,  however,  though  it  may  acknowledge  in  the  ab- 
stract, the  supereminent  importance  of  industry  and  virtue, 
has,  in  some  form  or  other,  given  countenance  to  idleness 
and  furnished  nutriment  to  vice.  France  when  she  re- 
ceives the  prodigious  sum  of  14,000,000  of  francs  per 

*  Vide  Note  1,  Appendix. 


annum,  from  her  gambling  tables,  seems  to  act  upon  the 
principle  that  so  large  a  sum  in  her  public  coffers,  coun- 
tervails the  private  injury  which  they  are  the  means  of 
inflicting.  Thus  it  may  have  been  with  Great  Britain 
when  the  lottery  was  made  an  instrument  of  finance,  but 
its  abolition  proves  that  in  that  opinion,  she  knows  herself 
to  have  been  mistaken.  Those  States  of  our  republican 
Union  which  adhere  to  the  system  of  raising  money  by 
lottery,  must  likewise  believe,  if  they  reflect  at  all  upon 
the  principle  upon  which  it  is  founded,  that  public  ag- 
.grandizement  is  preferable  to  public  and  private  virtue. 
But  why  is  the  public  money  expended  for  the  suppres- 
sion of  vice  ?  For  what  purposes  are  houses  of  refuge  and 
penitentiaries  for  solitary  confinement?  Why  are  semina- 
ries established  for  moral  and  literary  instruction  at  the 
public  expense  ?  No,  as  the  principle  can  not  be 
maintained,  that  public  wealth  should  be  placed  in  com- 
petition with  private  merit,  the  argument  must  be  re- 
linquished as  false  and  untenable.  We  are  therefore 
reduced  to  the  necessity  of  inquiring,  whether  lotteries 
are  permitted  to  exist  without  reflection  and  regardless 
of  consequences,  or  because  public  opinion  has  not  been 
enlightened  on  the  subject  of  their  enormity?  We  be- 
lieve the  latter;  and  for  the  purpose  of  giving  some 
exposition  of  their  direful  and  lamentable  effects,  we  pro- 
pose to  exhibit  by  well  authenticated  examples,  some  of 
the  evils  which  they  have  entailed, 

A  brief  comparison  between  lotteries  and  manual  chance 
will  convince  any  one  that  the  lottery  is  the  most  injurious 
and  ruinous  of  all  systems  of  gaming.  Wc  are  not  de- 
sirous of  concealing  any  of  the  horrors  of  the  Palais  Royal 
of  Paris,  nor  of  drawing  a  veil  over  the  atrocities  which 
are  there  committed,  the  fortunes  that  are  wrecked,  or  the 
suicides  which  it  leads  to,  but  we  shall  contend  upon  facts 

2 


10 

not  to  be  controverted  and  upon  reasoning  plainly  de- 
duced^ that  the  establishment  of  a  Palais  Royal  in  Phila- 
delphia^ or  in  any  of  our  principal  cities,  is  less  earnestly 
to  be  deprecated,  because  less  fruitful  of  injury  than 
the  continuance  of  our  present  lotteries.  For  the  pur- 
poses of  a  fair  contrast,  we  may  refer  to  Scott's  Visit  to 
Paris  in  1814,  as  a  book  which  gives  a  competent  insight 
into  that  scene  of  debauchery.  We  select  this  single  in- 
stance, because  from  the  protection  which  play  receives 
from  the  government  of  France,  as  a  means  of  revenue, 
and  from  a  peculiar  proclivity  in  the  passions  of  the  peo- 
ple, gambling  is  there  made  to  present  a  spectacle  of 
abandonment  and  vice  deplorable  without  example. 

Can  we  oppose  to  a  picture  such  as  manual  chance 
there  exhibits,  any  thing  so  dreadful  and  terrific  in  the 
operation  of  the  lottery  ?  It  would  be  no  difficult  task  to 
pourtray,  by  a  stroke,  in  colours  sufficiently  black  and 
hideous  the  true  aspect  of  the  latter,  and  ask  whether 
the  horrors  of  the  Palais  Royal  would  not  dwindle  in  the 
comparison  ?  But  we  prefer  to  exhibit  its  effects  by  cases 
and  examples,  and  substitute  a  series  of  dry  but  well 
authenticated  facts  for  general  description. 

Before  we  present  some  cases  which  have  occurred  in 
this  country,  let  us  review  its  effects  in  England,  whence 
we  have  derived  it.  It  will  be  recollected,  that  there  the 
public  coffers  were  enriched  by  it  as  an  instrument  of  re- 
venue, and  that  it  was  guarded  by  laws  of  great  severity. 
The  committee  appointed  by  the  House  of  Commons  in 
the  year  1808,  examined  individuals  upon  the  evils  of  the 
lottery  in  general,  as  well  as  in  its  relation  to  its  imper- 
fections as  a  legal  system.  Crimes  of  every  dye  were 
found  to  be  committed,  suicides  were  frecpient,  and  the 
extent  of  illegal  insurances  which  it  introduced,  were 
greater  than  could  have  entered  into  the  imaginations  of 


11 

its  enemies. — In  the  testimony  of  Robert  Baker,  Esq.  a 
police  magistrate  of  ten  years  standing,  given  before  the 
committee,  several  striking  instances  are  related,  which 
had  come  under  his  notice,  of  frauds  committed,  and  of 
the  facilities  which  were  given  to^  forgery.  His  decided 
opinion  is,  that  the  money  obtained  for  the  public,  by  no 
means  compensa^^^^  evils  and  distresses  growing  out  of 

practices  connected  with  the  lottery.  One  case  is  nar- 
rated, which,  as  it  shows  the  class  of  people  to  which  the 
lottery  proves  most  prejudicial,  we  will  give  in  his  own  lan- 
guage :  "  I  remember  one  very  strong  instance  af  distress 
four  or  five  years  ago.  It  was  the  case  of  a  journeyman  who 
belonged,  to  a  club,  which  club  purchased  a  lottery  ticket 
which  came  up  a  great  prize.  The  share  of  this  man  was 
dglOO,  or  thereabouts  ;  he  had  been  an  industrious  work- 
ing man  before,  and  he  was  persuaded  by  his  friends  to 
invest  the  money  in  the  stocks  in  the  joint  names  of  him- 
self and  his  wife,  in  order  to  prevent  his  making  away 
with  it.  He  did  so  ;  but  he  soon  got  into  habits  of  idle- 
ness, now  he  was  possessed  of  the  money.  It  was  to  this 
cause  to  be  attributed  that  he  changed  his  habits  of  indus- 
try to  those  of  drunkenness  and  idleness,  and  destroyed 
all  his  domestic  comforts.     It  was  the  ruin  of  the  family.^' 

In  a  written  statement  which  Baker  subsequently  sub- 
mitted to  the  committee,  he  expresses  himself  thus : 

'^  I  am  most  decidedly  of  opinion,  that  the  lotteries  have 
the  worst  possible  effects  upon  the  morals  of  the  people, 
inasmuch  as  they  afford  a  ground- work  fol*,  and  give  a  sort 
of  public  sanction  to,  that  spirit  of  gambling  which  is  so 
prevalent  among  the  lower  orders.  That  the  practice  of 
insuring  frequently  occasions  crimts  there  can  be  no 
doubt.  That  it  produces  distress  to  a  very  great  degree 
is  still  more  clear. — Another  most  serious  evil;  frequently 


12 

arising  from  the  same  source,  is  the  dissentmi  and  misery 
it  occasions  in  families, — ^The  bare  possibility  of  obtaining 
a  large  sum  in  return  for  a  small  advance,  is  so  strong  an 
inducement  with  the  lower  classes  to  adventure,  the  in- 
genuity and  profits  of  the  persons  whose  interest  it  is  to 
excite  and  keep  alive  in  them  the  spirit  of  gambling  are 
so  great,  that  I  am  satisfied  nothing  short  of  the  total  dis- 
continuance of  lotteries  will  put  an  end  to  the  mischiefs/^ 
He  adds  in  the  annotations  subjoined  to  his  communica- 

i  tion : 

I  ^^  It  is  a  common  observation  among  manufacterers  and 
master-tradesmen,  that  they  find  more  difficulty  in  keep- 
ing the  persons  they  employ  steadily  at  work,  during  the 
drawing  of  the  lottery  than  at  any  other  time.'' 

The  Rev.  Wm.  Gurney,  who  had  been  six  years  minis- 
ter of  the  Free  Chapel  of  St.  Giles,  deposed  before  the 
committee,  that  he  found,  in  visiting  among  his  parish- 
ioners, much  of  their  domestic  trials  had  their  origin  in 
the  lottery ;  that  it  was  the  fruitful  source  of  conjugal  dif- 
ferences ;  that  it  was  ^^  a  very  general  cause  of  distress ;'' 
and  that  such  was  the  infatuation  of  those  who  had  once 
indulged,  that  money  was  thrown  away  upon  adventures, 
^'  when  the  children  have  been  starving,  or  at  least  want- 
ing the  common  necessaries  of  life.''  His  own  language 
in  another  part  of  his  deposition,  will  better  illustrate  the 
severity  of  its  inflictions  upon  the  poorer  classes  of  society 
than  the  most  successful  attempt  at  abridgement. 

"  I  know  of  a  family  in  Holborn,"  says  he,  ^^  the  last 
of  whom  died  in  an  alms-house,  owing  to  the  lottery.  This 
person  was  a  widow.     She  was  in  a  good  line  of  business 

i  fts  it  silk-dyer ;  which  I  suppose  brought  her  in  about 

T  ,i64.00  a-year,  clear.  The  foreman  she  had  was  in  the 
habit  of  insuring,  he  was  led  astray,  and  they  insured  to 
the  amount  of  dg3()0  or  ^^400  a-night,  although  the  fore- 


13 

man  had  only  ^^33  a  year  wages.  It  appeared,  on  his 
decease,  he  had  insured  immense  sums  of  money.  He  died 
insolvent ;  I  acted  as  his  executor,  and  paid  three  or  four 
shillings  in  the  pound  for  him.  He  had  received  a  great 
many  bills  for  his  mistress,  which  he  had  never  crossed 
out,  and  he  ruined  her.  She  was  not  able  to  pay  three 
shillings  in  the  pound.  She  was  obliged  to  go  into  an 
alms-house,  and  she  died  there  in  four  or  five  months.  A 
gentleman  who  drew  the  foreman  into  the  snare  was  ruined 
by  it.  He  formerly  kept  his  carriage,  and  lived  in  Queen's 
-Square.  It  was  like  intoxication  with  him.  If  a  man 
gets  into  the  habit  he  dont  leave  it. — I  know  of  another 
very  remarkable  case.  The  man  was  a  coachman.  The 
family  consisted  of  the  man,  his  wife,  and  an  orphan  child 
they  took  care  of.  They  resolved,  as  soon  as  they  bought 
some  tickets,  to  insure  them,  which  they  understood  was 
legal.  They  got  each  of  them  one-sixteenth  of  a  ^£20,000 
prize,  the  coachman,  his  wife,  and  the  child.  From  that 
time  the  man  became  a  noted  gambler  in  the  lottery.  He 
went  out  of  his  mind,  and  he  was  always  raving  about  the 
lottery.  He  has  since  recovered  his  senses.  His  wife 
fretted  herself  to  death.  I  attended  her  in  her  last  mo- 
ments.— I  have  known  several  instances  in  which  I  have 
given  money  to  relieve  the  distresses  of  persons  gambling 
in  the  lottery,  which  has  been  taken  from  them  imme- 
diately at  my  own  door.  To  one  woman  I  gave  tive  shil- 
lings, to  buy  bread  with  for  herself  and  her  children.  I 
gave  it  as  treasurer  to  a  benevolent  society.  Her  husband 
took  it  away,  and  went  to  one  of  those  collectors  of  in- 
surances and  laid  it  out,  and  they  were  obliged  to  go  to 
the  overseer  of  the  poor  to  get  relief  that  night,  otherwise 
they  would  have  been  starved. — ^There  is  another  instance 
of  a  young  woman  now  at  Botany  Bay.  She  had  insured 
three  numbers,  which  she  had  dreamed  about,  and  she 


14 

procured  money  by  improper  means,  which  led  her  to 
her  fate/^ 

William  Hale,  a  silk -manufacturer,  and  treasurer  of  the 
poor  rates,  gives  it  as  his  opinion,  very  emphatically  ex- 
pressed, that  nothing  is  so  pernicious  to  the  labouring  poor 
as  the  lottery — that  it  is  the  prolific  parent  of  disorders 
and  criMies — that  no  other  mode  of  gambling  would  be  so 
baneful — and  that  its  evils  are  inherent  and  altogether 
irremediable.  "If,''  he  says,  ^^I  might  give  my  opinion 
of  the  ill  effects  of  the  lottery,  of  the  influence  it  has  in 
corrupting  the  people, — and  if  I  might  form  that  opinion 
from  the  appearances  in  Spital -fields,  I  should  be  led  to 
conclude,  that  there  is  no  circumstance  which  conduces 
so  much  as  the  lottery  to  make  the  lower  orders  of  the 
people  bad  husbands^  bad  icives,  bad  childreuj  and  bad 
servants.  I  know  no  one  thing  which  has  been  productive 
of  so  many  evils  and  so  much  suicide  as  the  lottery.  There 
is  hardly  a  year  but  one  or  more  have  hung  themselves,  or 
cut  their  throats,  from  gambling  in  the  lottery*" 

On  a  second  examination  he  said ;  "  I  have  conversed 
with  several  persons  who  have  had  to  do  with  parochial 
concerns,  and  they  all  agree  in  the  beggary  produced  from 
this  cause ;  and  I  am  convinced,  that,  independently  of 
the  depravity  and  guilt  it  occasions,  ihei^e  is  more  lost 
than  gained  by  the  lottery  to  government. ^^ 

The  Rev.  Brownlow  Ford,  the  ordinary  of  Newgate, 
who  had  filled  that  station  for  the  period  of  ten  years,  de- 
posed, that  the  lottery  was  the  author  of  great  poverty  and 
distress — that  it  was  the  acknowledged  origin  of  much 
crime — and  that  it  was  the  occasion  of  bringing  many  per- 
sons to  the  gallows.  He  says,  "When  I  have  put  the 
question  to  malefactors,  ^  What  first  drove  you  to  crime  ?' 
the  answer  has  been,  ^  It  was  poverty  from  buying  and 
insuring  in  the  lottery,^ '' 


15 

The  evidence  of  Hector  Essex,  a  pawnbroker,  who  had 
been  in  the  business  twenty -five  years,  is  pregnant  with 
proofs  of  the  wonderful  infatuation  of  persons  engaged 
either  in  the  purchase  of  tickets,  or  their  insurance,  by 
pawning  plate,  linen,  beds,  and  the  common  necessaries 
of  life  to  obtain  money,  which  was  ventured  and  lost.  He 
speaks  of  women  as  being  most  captivated  by  the  alhire- 
ments  of  the  game,  and  alleges,  that  discord  and  bank- 
ruptcy, the  distress  and  dispersion  of  fiimilies,  always 
marched  in  its  train.  One  instance  is  given  of  a  female, 
who,  though  always  unsuccessful,  persevered  until  her 
liusband  was  ruined.  When  informed  of  the  fact,  he 
drowned  himself  in  a  fit  of  despair. 

Such  are  some  of  the  facts  elicited  by  the  examinations 
of  the  committee  of  the  House  of  Commons,  whose  report 
led  to  enactments,  assuasive,  they  were  considered,  of  the 
•complicated  and  accumulated  evils  of  the  lottery.  Other 
examinations  show  what  it  is  here  unnecessary  to  quote — 
the  ingenious  and  multiplied  expedients  of  the  lottery 
venders  for  evading  the  laws,  as  well  as  the  perfidy  of  the 
government  officers  in  winking  at  transgressions,  and  par- 
taking of  the  fruits  of  illicit  adventures.  The  whole  re- 
port discloses  a  scene  of  iniquity  so  ojultiform,  and  of 
misery  so  hopeless,  as  to  sicken  and  appal  the  mind.  The 
restrictions  intended  by  new  statutes  soon  ceased  to  exhibit 
any  mitigation  in  their  effects,  till  at  last  the  whole  sys- 
tem was  abscinded  as  the  most  noxious  and  venomous  ex- 
crescence that  could  deform  the  legislation  or  poison  the 
moral  atmosphere  of  England.  Its  close  was  distinguished 
by  events  which  perhaps  will  ever  be  remembered  in  the 
annals  of  self-destruction.  A  scheme  was  formed  in  Lon- 
don displaying  several  magnificent  prizes  of  ,£50,000  and 
dglOO,000,  which  tempted  to  ventures  of  very  large 
amount,  and  the  night  of  the  drawing  was  signalized  by 


16 

fifty  cases  of  suicide !  With  these  tragedies  terminated 
the  career  of  the  lottery  in  the  English  isle. — From  facts 
of  this  character  what  opinion  are  we  authorised  to  form 
of  the  magnitude  of  the  evil  ?  An  evil  which  paralizes  in- 
dustry, destroys  domestic  concord,  saps  the  foundations  of 
correct  principles,  and  leads  to  the  commission  of  the 
darkest  crimes  in  the  criminal  calendar  ?  What  ought  we 
to  think  of  that  legislation  which  can  give  it  protection  ? 
As  well  might  a  legislature  cherish  by  the  public  bounty, 
a  monster  whose  pestilential  and  baneful  breath  scattered 
deformity,  sickness,  and  death  widely  over  the  country. 

If  an  investigation  were  made  of  its  influence  in  this 
country,  we  should  have  no  cause  of  triumph  at  an  ex- 
emption from  any  of  the  ills  which  it  inflicted  on  England. 
Cases  are  numerous,  exhibiting  its  effects  in  producing 
great  pecuniary  distress,  in  exciting  to  the  commission  of 
extensive  and  multifarious  frauds,  and  in  leading  to  suicide 
and  other  atrocious  felonies.  The  only  difficulty  consists, 
not  in  the  want  but  in  the  selection  of  examples,  since, 
from  the  respectability  of  relations  and  friends,  much  deli- 
cacy is  necessary  in  the  mention  of  circumstances.  Though 
from  this  cause  the  names  of  the  persons  whose  cases  are 
detailed,  may,  with  some  exceptions,  be  suppressed,  as 
well  as  the  authorities  upon  which  they  are  given,  yet  we 
pledge  ourselves  for  the  truth  of  each  related,  and  can 
produce  living  witnesses  of  their  accuracy. 

We  first  give  an  extract  from  a  letter  written  by  Joseph 
Watson,  Esq.,  formerly  Mayor  of  Philadelphia,  who,  in 
addition  to  his  general  testimony,  gives  an  affecting  in- 
stance of  moral  aberration  in  the  decline  of  life. 

^^I  do  not  think  it  necessary,  says  he,  to  go  into  a  detail 
of  a  number  of  cases  that  occur  to  my  remembrance  of  the 
awful  efiects  produced  on  individuals  and  families  by  the 
infatuation  of  lottery  gambling,     I  have  known  individuals 


17 

of  former  good  repute  and  standing  in  society,  who,  in 
bitter  agony  of  feeling,  have  declared  to  me,  that  they 
were  guilty  of  breach  of  trust,  larceny,  or  other  crimes, 
induced  solely  by  gambling  in  lotteries,  and  vesting  all 
their  property,  and  that  of  others  entrusted  to  them,  in 
tickets.  I  will  state  to  you  a  single  case,  some  time,  I  think, 
in  1827.  A  gray-headed  old  man,  of  gentlemanly  appear- 
ance and  acquirements,  was  brought  into  the  police  office, 
charged  with  picking  a  pocket;  his  trunk  was  searched, 
and  in  it  were  found  lottery  tickets,  plans,  and  schemes,  for 
many  past  years.  Being  asked  why  so  great  a  quantity  of 
these  were  found  in  his  possession,  he  answered,  in  sub- 
stance, that  they  were  the  product  of  his  lottery  dealings 
for  the  last  twelve  or  fifteen  years,  within  which  period  he 
had  actually  squandered  or  expended  for  tickets  as  many 
thousand  dollars,  without  at  any  time  having  been  success- 
ful, except  in  trifling  prizes — that  he  had  recently  spent 
his  last  dollar,  his  last  ticket  had  come  out  a  blank,  and  to 
prevent  starvation,  he  had  made  the  attempt  for  which  he 
was  brought  up.  This  man,  it  was  believed,  had  previously 
maintained  an  irreproachable  character.  I  think  he  died  a 
convict,  in  Walnut  street  prison.^^ 

The  following  instance  of  wrecked  happiness  and 
fame,  is  from  the  pen  of  an  estimable  gentleman,  whose 
character  is  a  full  guaranty  for  its  correctness.  We  merely 
abridge  his  narrative  by  excluding  extraneous  circum- 
stances. 

^^  A  young  man,  of  respectable  family,  was  in  the  employ 
of  an  extensive  mercantile  house  in  this  city.  (Philadel- 
phia.) For  a  number  of  years  he  conducted  himself  with 
great  propriety  and  fidelity,  married  an  amiable  young 
woman,  with  whom  he  lived  happily,  and  had  an  interest- 
ing little  family  growing  up  around  him.  His  salary  was 
such  as  to  enable  him  to  live  comfortably  and  respectably, 

3 


18 

with  a  proper  attention  to  frugality.  For  some  time  pre- 
vious to  the  sad  development  of  his  dishonesty,  there  was 
an  obvious  change  in  his  countenance  and  conduct  at  home. 
He  became  irritable,  and  showed  some  unkindness  to  his 
wife  and  children.  One  morning  he  was  missed  from  the 
counting  house  ^  *  *.  He  had  eloped — and  left  his  wife 
and  children  in  a  situation  even  more  distressing  than  that 
of  the  widow  and  the  fatherless.  A  note  was  found  ad- 
dressed to  his  employers,  stating  that  he  had  been  tempted 
many  months  before  to  purchase  a  lottery  ticket,  the  pos- 
session of  which  had  excited  an  insatiable  thirst  for  buying 
more.  That  he  had  gone  on  for  a  considerable  time,  occa- 
sionally elated  by  obtaining  a  prize,  and  at  other  times 
almost  in  despair,  racked  with  anxiety  and  suspense,  and 
tortured  with  the  fear  of  the  consequences  which  must  re- 
sult from  the  iniquitous  course  he  was  pursuing.  But  the 
passion  for  this  dreadful  species  of  gambling  had  com- 
pletely infatuated  him — he  exhausted  his  own  funds  in  the 
purchase  of  tickets,  and  reached  forth  his  hands  to  em- 
brace the  money  of  his  employers.  The  compunctions 
which  he  first  felt  for  so  disgraceful  an  act,  were  soon 
drowned  in  the  vain  and  false  hope  of  retrieving  his  ruined 
fortunes.  Again  and  again  did  he  appropriate  their  mo- 
ney to  gratify  his  unholy  appetite  for  lottery  tickets,  con- 
triving by  false  entries  to  conceal  the  robbery — until  at 
length  the  sum  became  so  great  that  it  could  not  longer 
be  kept  a  secret.  Unable  to  face  the  degradation  and  re- 
proach which  must  ensue,  he  took  the  desperate  resolution 
of  abandoning  a  faithful  and  affectionate  wife  and  his  help- 
less children,  and  absconded,  leaving  them  destitute  of 
almost  every  comfort.  The  sum  of  which  he  had  de- 
frauded his  employers  amounted  to  thousands  of  dollars. '^ 
'  We  cannot  resist  the  temptation  to  quote  the  following 
account,  given  by  a  lottery  vender  of  New  York,  as  to  the 


Do. 

do. 

do. 

Do. 

do. 

do. 

Do. 

do. 

do. 

Do. 

do. 

do. 

Do. 

do. 

do. 

Do. 

do. 

do. 

Class  30, 

was 

S50 

do.      31, 

do. 

40 

do.      32, 

do. 

12 

do.      11, 

do. 

50 

do.      33, 

do. 

300 

do.      34, 

do. 

50 

do.       35, 

do. 

100 

19 

destination  of  prizes  which  were  sold  by  him  in  a  certain 
class  drawn  during  the  autumn  of  1831,  and  of  his  own 
impoverishment  by  purchasing  in  the  lottery. 
^^The  highest  prize  sold  by  me  in  Class  30, 

do. 

do. 

do. 

do. 

do. 

do. 

,     ^^The  first  prize,  of  ^50,  was  sold  to  a  black  man.     I 
never  saw  him  after. 

^^The  second,  of  840,  was  sold  to  a  black  man.  He  spent 
it  all  in  tickets,  and  got  in  my  debt  S2.50,  which  he  has 
not  paid. 

"The  third,  812,  was  sold  to  a  neighbour  of  mine.  He 
took  the  amount  in  tickets,  and  lost  the  whole.  He  never 
purchased  of  me  after  that. 

*^The  fourth,  of  S300,  was  sold  to  a  journeyman  baker. 
He  drew  a  S  1,000  prize  afterwards;  he  spent  the  whole 
8300  prize  with  me,  and,  as  I  understand,  he  left  his  em- 
ployment and  the  city  much  in  debt. 

"The  fifth,  of  S50,  was  sold  to  a  woman  who  spent  the 
whole  for  tickets,  and  more  too,  in  less  than  a  week. 

^^The  sixth  and  last  was  sold  to  a  young  gentleman  of  my 
acquaintance.  He  bought  more  tickets  than  the  prizes 
came  to.  He  drew  afterwards  S  1,000;  I  presume,  in  fact 
he  told  me,  he  had  spent  every  cent  of  it  in  lottery  tickets; 
I  am  thus  particular,  and  I  am  enabled  to  be  so,  from  hav- 
ing kept  a  book  in  which  ^all  my  tickets  were  registered, 
and  I  have  invariably  taken  the  names  of  purchasers,  or  a 
description  of  their  persons.  The  lottery  brokers  gene- 
rally do  so ;  they  are  a  keen  set  of  fellows,  and  pretty  sure 
not  to  let  a  person  who  may  be  so  unfortunate  as  to  draw 


20 

a  high  prize,  escape  their  clutches.  It  may  not  be  amiss 
to  state  my  own  experience.  I  have  within  seven  years, 
drawn  the  whole  of  .         -         -         .  810,000 

Half  of  824,000,    -         -         -         -  12,000 

Half  of       5,000,     ...  -  2,500 

and  minor  prizes  of  81,000  and  downwards,  to  an  immense 
amount.  I  have  drawn  at  least  twenty  prizes  of  $1,000 
each,  and  I  am  now  indebted  for  lottery  tickets  over  $7,000, 
without  the  means  of  paying  a  mill ;  and  I  believe  my  luck 
has  been  better  than  that  of  any  other  man  in  America.  I 
have  had  tickets  forced  upon  me  by  the  venders,  to  the 
amount  of  $5,000  in  a  single  lottery.  As  long  as  there 
was  any  chance  of  redeeming  myself  from  insolvency,  I 
was  willing  to  take  the  risk,  and  so  were  they,  believing 
in  my  ability  to  pay  them." 

The  pernicious  and  destructive  influence  of  the  sys- 
tem is  justly  depicted  by  the  Hon.  John  Sergeant,  in 
a  speech  which  he  delivered  in  Congress  in  the  year 
1829.  We  extract  a  brief  passage,  as  well  for  the 
intrinsic  value  of  the  testimony,  as  for  the  case  which 
is  related  in  elucidation: — **So  great,^'  says  he,  ^Ms 
this  temptation  in  its  actual  results  on  society,  that  in  a 
thousand  cases  it  has  urged  men  to  the  commission  of 
acts  which  brought  them  to  a  jail,  if  not  the  gallows.  He 
adverted  to  one  very  affecting  instance  in  illustration  of  his 
position.  It  was  the  case  of  an  aged  and  highly  respecta- 
ble man  of  character,  till  then  unblemished,  and  of  such 
standing  as  to  bring  him  into  an  office  of  great  trust  in  a 
monied  institution.  In  consequence  of  a  defalcation  in 
the  funds,  the  gray  hairs  of  this  unhappy  man  were  brought 
down  to  the  lowest  state  of  ignominy,  by  his  being  tried 
and  convicted  for  purloining  the  money  of  the  institution. 
It  was  found  on  examining  into  the  case,  that  all  this  amount 
of  funds  had  gone  into  a  lottery  office.     The  man  had  been 


21 

dealing  in  lottery  tickets  a  long  time  before,  (in  tickets 
authorised  by  law,)  but  being  unfortunate,  he  yielded  in 
despair  to  the  force  of  a  propensity  which  sometimes  gets 
the  mastery  of  the  strongest  minds,  and  which  is  sure  to 
make  an  easy  conquest  over  weak  ones.'' 

The  case  of  C g  is  well  known  by  many  persons  in 

this  city.  He  was  teller  in  the  Mechanics'  Bank,  sustained 
an  unexceptionable  character,  and  had  an  interesting 
family  around  him,  to  which  he  was  affectionately  at- 
tached. His  income  was  sufficient  for  his  comfortable  sup- 
'port,  but  attracted  by  the  splendid  prizes  in  lottery 
schemes,  in  which  the  price  of  a  ticket  was  fifty  dollars, 
he  embarked,  and  purchased  to  very  large  amounts.  It 
is  calculated  that  he  lost  about  ten  thousand  dollars  by  his 
lottery  adventures.  Necessity  induced  fraud,  and  he  lost 
his  situation  in  the  bank  ;  he  became  poor  in  purse  and 
despicable  in  principle ;  and  he  died  in  a  miserable  con- 
dition— an  object  of  disgrace  and  scorn. 

A  person  in  the  laboratory  of  the  Messrs. ,  drew 

20,000  dollars.  With  this  sum  he  furnished  a  house,  and 
commenced  living  in  a  style  totally  different  from  that  to 
which  he  had  been  accustomed.  He  contracted  intem- 
perate habits,  and  in  twelve  months  squandered  the  whole 
amount  of  his  prize.  He  became  miserably  poor,  incapa- 
ble of  working,  and  very  dissolute. 

A  young  man  of  the  utmost  respectability  was  gradually 
drawn  into  gambling  in  the  lottery.  He  purchased  to  such 
an  extent  beyond  his  means,  that  for  the  purpose  of  pay- 
ing the  lottery  broker,  he  was  obliged  to  have  recourse  to 
overdrawing  the  bank.  This  he  did  to  the  amount  of  five 
thousand  dollars. 

The  cashier  of  a  bank  in ,  who  had  long  enjoyed 

the  entire  confidence  of  his  fellow-citizens,  was  discovered 
to  be  a  heavy  defaulter.     He  at  length  confessed  that  the 


22 

cause  of  his  ruin  was  the  lottery,  in  which  he  had  largely 
embarked.  He  was  insolvent  to  the  amount  of  fifty  thou- 
sand dollars. 

A  married  woman  of  respectable  character  commenced 
gambling  in  the  lottery.  She  lost  a  large  sum,  which  she 
had  secretly  abstracted  from  the  desk  of  her  husband — 
the  result  of  his  hard  earnings.  Becoming  alarmed  and 
unhappy  from  the  apprehension  that  he  would  miss  the 
money,  she  submitted  to  prostitution  to  enable  her  to  re- 
place it.  The  facts  were  subsequently  developed,  and  the 
family,  in  consequence,  "  were  ruined  and  broken  up." 

A  young  man,  a  clerk  in  a  wholesale  store,  was  tempted 
to  try  his  fortune  in  the  purchase  of  tickets.  To  carry 
on  his  purchases  he  was  obliged  to  borrow  money  upon 
the  credit  of  his  employer.  The  fraud  was  finally  de- 
tected, and  an  investigation  resulted  in  finding  him  a  de- 
faulter to  the  amount  of  eighteen  hundred  dollars.  He 
was,  besides,  indebted  one  thousand  dollars  to  the  lottery 
brokers. 

There  is  another  instance  of  a  clerk  in  one  of  our  most 
respectable  counting  houses,  who,  from  his  losses  in  the 
lottery,  was  induced  to  embezzle  money  intrusted  to  him 
for  deposite  in  bank,  alleging  that  the  amount  was  less 
than  represented.  The  frequent  recurrence  of  the  trick 
led  to  his  detection.  The  total  prostration  of  his  charac- 
ter and  ruin  of  his  prospects,  were  the  consequence. 

W of failed,  in  the  autumn  of  1832.  He  had 

been  engaged  in  what  appeared  to  be  a  profitable  retail 
dry  goods  business.  The  cause  of  his  defalcation  was  dis- 
covered to  be  the  lottery,  in  which  he  had  lost  about  five 
thousand  dollars. 

Our  list  of  examples  is  concluded  with  the  following 
narrative,  kindly  communicated  by  a  very  respectable 
gentleman,  who  is  connected  with  the  institution  to  which 


23 

it  refers.  The  principal  facts — that  of  the  abstraction 
and  its  origin — are  matters  of  notoriety  in  this  community. 
We  alter  only  to  abridge : 

''  The  evils  of  lottery  gambling  were  never,  perhaps, 
more  strongly  exemplified,  than  in  the  case  of  that  infatu- 
ated man,  Clew,  the  porter  of  the  Bank  of  the  United 
States.  This  individual  occupied,  in  the  Bank  a 
very  confidential  station,  and  although  many  small 
sums  of  monies  were  occasionally  missed,  under  cir- 
cumstances very  trying  to  the  officers,  and  particularly 
to  the  Tellers,  yet  no  suspicion  had  attached  to  Clew,  so 
exemplary  had  been  his  general  conduct.  One  day,  the 
officers  of  the  bank  in  settling  their  daily  morning  balances 
with  the  city  banks,  missed  two  notes  of  a  thousand  dol- 
lars each.  *  *  *  In  a  few  hours  both  the  missing  notes  were 
presented  by  two  lottery  brokers,  who  upon  being  asked 
from  whom  they  had  been  received,  stated  from  Clew,  the 
porter  of  the  United  States'  Bank.  To  each  of  these 
brokers  he  was  then  indebted  for  lottery  tickets  more  than 
a  thousand  dollars,  and  when  thus  detected  there  were 
found  in  his  possession  426  whole  tickets,  462  half  tickets, 
1361  quarter  tickets,  and  78  eighths  of  tickets,  in  various 
lotteries,  making  in  all  two  thousand,  three  hundred  and 
twenty-seven  chances,  which  after  having  been  all  drawn 
and  examined  by  order  of  the  bank,  produced  less  than 
twenty  dollars !  Facts  afterwards  disclosed  satisfied  the 
officers  of  the  bank,  that  this  man  had  been  for  years  led 
away  by  this  worst  of  all  species  of  gambling,  because  the 
most  seductive  and  the  least  odious,  and  had  constantly 
been  defrauding  the  institution  that  confided  in  him,  of 
sums  of  money  for  the  purpose  of  carrying  on  his  nefarious 
speculations. 

''  It  is  scarcely  necessary  to  add,  that  his  villanies  met 
with  the  reward  consequent  upon  them, — trial,  conviction, 


24 

imprisonment, — and  that  with  blasted  reputation  and 
ruined  character,  he  yet  lives,  a  lasting  monument  of  the 
miserable  effects  of  this  pernicious  system.^' 

It  is  a  remarkable  fact,  that  in  all  cases  of  delinquency  on 
the  part  of  officers  of  the  Bank  of  the  United  States,  whether 
belonging  to  the  principal  institution  or  its  branches,  the  un- 
lawful fruits  have  been  squandered  in  lottery  offices.  So 
far  too  as  any  knowledge  has  transpired  in  relation  to  the 
origin  of  delinquencies  in  our  local  banks,  the  same  re- 
mark will  apply — they  are  all  traceable  to,  and  centre  in, 
the  same  shocking  reservoirs  of  ruined  virtue,  shipwrecked 
fortunes,  and  blighted  hopes ! 

The  instances  of  fraud  and  crime  which  have  been  no- 
ticed as  growing  out  of  the  system,  might  be  greatly  mul- 
tiplied. But  we  forbear,  and  shall  content  ourselves  with 
introducing  a  few  examples  of  the  disastrous  effects  of  what 
is  termed  good  fortune  in  drawing  the  large  prizes, 

A  person  of  the  name  of  J ,  who  was  engaged  in  a 

respectable  grocery  business,  drew  several  prizes  amounting 
to  forty  thousand  dollars.  He  quitted  business,  and  was  per- 
suaded to  adopt  an  expensive  style  of  living.  He  very 
soon  expended  the  whole  sum,  became  intemperate,  and 
died  insolvent  and  broken  hearted. 

A  man  who  resided  in ,  drew  a  prize  of  thirty 

thousand  dollars  among  other  smaller  ones.  He  continued 
his  adventures,  and  eventually  failed,  fifty  thousand  dol- 
lars in  debt ! 

A  man  who  was  pursuing  a  small  but  successful  busi- 
ness, purchased  some  lottery  tickets,  and  drew  one  thou- 
sand dollars.  Again  he  drew  ten  thousand  dollars,  and  on 
another  occasion  five  thousand  dollars.  The  public  heard  of 
all  these  prizes,  but  not  of  the  expenditure  in  tickets  neces- 
sary to  secure  them.  He  neglected  his  business,  and 
finally  abandoned  it  for  that  of  the  lottery.  His  habits 
became  dissipated,  and  he  is  now  reduced  to  penury. 


25 

Mr. ,  whose  good  fortune  in  the  lottery  had  Leen 

extensively  bruited  as  wonderful,  failed  a  few  years  ago. 
He  had  once  drawn  a  prize  of  S40,000,  and  others  of  in- 
ferior amount.  The  account  which  he  had  kept  showed 
an  aggregate  of  SBO^OOO,  drawn  at  different  periods,  but 
his  expenditure  for  tickets  amounted  to  the  sum  of 
8120,000 !     He  was  insolvent  ^70,000  !* 

If  we  refer  to  the  records  of  our  Insolvent  Court,  we 
shall  find  how  very  large  a  proportion  of  those  who  have 
recourse  to  the  insolvent  laws,  attribute  their  misfortunes 
"to  the  lottery  alone. f  Intemperance,  as  can  be  proved  by 
almost  innumerable  instances,  almost  invariably  follows  as 
one  of  its  consequences ;  for  what  is  more  likely  to  be  re- 
sorted to  as  a  cure  for  the  tedium  of  idleness  or  the  agony 
of  successive  losses  than  the  excitement  and  insensibility 
to  be  found  in  the  glass?  The  tenants  of  the  alms-house 
and  penitentiary  at  Philadelphia,  bear  abundant  testimony 
to  its  baleful  influences.  In  a  very  recent  case  of  commit- 
ment to  the  latter,  it  was  acknowledged  by  the  oiTender, 
that  the  lottery  was  the  occasion  of  his  crime,  and  the 
first  and  last  cause  of  his  ruin. 

These  cases  are  tedious,  but  they  cannot  be  uninterest- 
ing to  any  one  who  regards  the  welfare  or  morals  of  the 
community,  as  matters  of  moment.  Would  licensed  gam- 
bling tables  be  introductive  of  so  much  distress,  such 
variety  and  blackness  of  crime?  The  ademption  to  regu- 
lar purchasers  tnust  always  be  great,  for  if  every  ticket 
in  a  lottery  were  taken  by  a  single  adventurer,  he  would 
find  that  after  the  deduction  of  profits  for  the  manager 
and  the  vender,  and  the  defalcation  from  the  nominal 
amount  of  the  prizes,  nearly  the  half  o^  his  disbursements 

*  Vide  Note  2,  Appendix. 
t  Vide  Note  3,  Appendix. 


26 

could  not  return.  No  other  gambling  is  so  ruinous  in  its 
ultimate  results.  Besides  it  is  afiirmedj  and  the  argument 
is  by  no  means  without  plausibility  and  force,  that  the  lot- 
tery by  Permutalioriy  is  radically  a  cheat;  because  it  can 
be  ascertained  which  tickets  are  entitled  to  the  prizes. — 
But  setting  aside  the  inevitable  losses  and  the  inherent 
frauds  of  the  system,  the  lottery  is  more  extensively  and 
deeply  prejudicial  than  other  modes  of  gambling. — The 
odium  of  holding  tickets  in  a  lottery  may  be  prevented  by 
committing  to  another  the  charge  of  the  purchase.  Not 
so  with  manual  gambling,  in  which,  as  personal  superin- 
tendence is  necessary,  the  disgrace  attendant  upon  par- 
ticipation, cannot  be  obviated.  Thus  it  is,  that  persons 
pretending  to  respectability  are  induced  to  embark  in  lot- 
tery adventures,  who  until  a  long  course  of  obliquity  has 
rendered  them  callous  to  its  consequences,  would  not  incur 
the  disgi'ace. 

The  risks  are  greater  in  the  lottery  than  in  other  gam- 
ing ;  for  the  risk  of  the  latter  may  be  as  one  to  one,  or 
greater,  at  the  discretion  of  the  player,  but  the  hazards 
incident  to  the  former  are  frequently  in  the  proportion  of 
one  to  a  thousand.  In  the  one,  loss  of  fortune  may  ensue 
in  a  single  night;  but  in  the  other,  the  excitements  of 
hope  and  the  agony  of  disappointment  may  alternate  in 
such  rapid  succession,  that  the  unhappy  adventurer  may 
have  a  protracted  struggle  with  the  fickleness  of  chance 
before  he  may  know  the  result  of  the  contest.  In  the 
meantime  he  is  rendered  a  useless,  not  to  say  pernicious 
member  of  society, — his  principles  are  contaminated  by 
familiar  association  with  infamy  and  guilt,  and  his  habits 
debauched  by  indulging  in  the  excesses  to  which  he  has 
been  driven.  The  life  of  a  regular  gambler  may  admit  of 
useful  occupation  in  the  intervals  of  play.  But  the  ad- 
venturer in  the  lottery  broods  by  day  and  night  over  his 


27 

tickets — his  imagination  is  gloated  with  the  grand  idea  of 
possessing  the  capital  prize — and  his  mind  is  held  in  that 
state  of  constant  excitement,  which  admits  of  nothing  to 
divert  it  from  the  one  great  and  absorbing  object  of  its  con- 
templation. Ordinary  gambling  may  ruin  the  victim  of 
its  infatuation  at  once,  and  drive  him  to  suicide,  or  he  may 
borrow  from  his  successful  companion,  beyond  the  possi- 
bility of  repayment,  in  the  hope  of  retrieving  his  broken 
fortunes.  The  speculator  in  the  lottery,  on  the  other 
hand,  is  not  vanquished  at  a  blow,  but  in  the  caprices  or 
accidents  of  the  wheel,  though  often  the  loser,  he  is  some- 
times the  gainer — new  stimulus  is  thus  imparted  to  his 
cupidity — he  is  urged  on  to  new  ventures — great  good 
fortune  only  whets  his  appetite  for  greater — and  continued 
411  luck  only  nourishes  the  hope  of  its  speedy  termination. 
He  soon  finds  that  he  is  incapable  of  a  higher  effort  than 
discussing  the  merits  of  a  scheme,  or  lounging  upon  the 
counter  of  a  lottery  office,  so  that  that  which  was  resorted 
to  as  promising  a  great  blessing,  has  become  the  bane  of  his 
happiness  and  the  solemn  business  of  his  life.  When  his 
means  are  exhausted,  and  his  friends  lose  their  confidence, 
he  cannot  gratify  his  passion  for  the  game,  or  his  pru- 
riency for  its  successes,  by  appealing  like  the  regular 
gamester  to  the  fortunate  winner  for  a  new  supply.  Driven 
as  well  by  the  desperate  necessity  of  ministering  to  his 
excitement  as  by  depraved  principles  and  reckless  de- 
spair,  he  is  ready  for  the  perpetration  of  any  enormity. 
Which  then  has  the  preponderance  of  evil  as  an  engine 
of  state  ?  If  the  risks  be  greater  by  which  the  consequent 
prospect  of  loss  must  be  commensurately  increased — if  it 
be  more  likely  to  lead  to  incurable  idleness — if  its  perni- 
cious influence  be  more  widely  diffused — and  if  its  inevit- 
able and  more  certain  tendency  is  to  intemperance,  to 
perfidity,  to  fraud,  and  to  crime,  we  can  be  at  no  loss  to 


28 

which  to  attribute  the  loathsome  superiority. — But  placing 
the  lottery  upon  the  same  level  with  other  gambling — 
placing  it  upon  the  footing  of  a  great  moral^  and,  in  our 
country  especially,  a  great  political  evil,  may  we  ask 
whether  its  continuance  by  law  should  be  permitted,  un- 
der a  form  of  government  which  depends  for  its  existence 
and  conservation  upon  the  high  minded  purity  of  its 
members?  Whether  that  which  is  so  directly  at  war  with 
the  whole  policy  of  this  country,  whose  every  interest 
consists  in  making  wealth  the  fruit  of  intelligent  industry 
and  presenting  every  incentive  to  useful  and  honourable 
exertion,  should  be  cherished  and  nurtured  by  the  genial 
sunshine  of  protective  legislation  ? 

But  not  only  is  the  lottery  injurious  in  the  abstract,  as 
contributing  to  great  pecuniary  distress  and  moral  wrong, 
but  the  system  as  conducted  in  Pennsylvania,  and  no  doubt 
from  the  existence  of  similar  causes  elsewhere,  superin- 
duces additional  evil.  Every  means  seems  to  be  employed, 
every  incitement  resorted  to  by  the  guardians  of  the  lot- 
tery, to  render  it  as  extensively  prejudicial  and  as  radi- 
cally hurtful  as  possible.  Let  us  take  a  brief  view  of  its 
administration  in  Pennsylvania,  since  the  remarks  which 
apply  to  it  here,  may,  with  very  few  exceptions,  be  made 
in  relation  to  other  parts  of  the  Union  in  which  the  lot- 
tery prevails. 

There  exists  but  one  lottery  which  has  even  the 
semblance  of  law  in  Pennsylvania,  and  that  had  com- 
mencement in  the  year  1795.  Though  an  act  of  as- 
sembly passed  three  years  before,  prohibited  the  sale 
of  foreign  lottery  tickets  under  a  severe  pecuniary 
penalty,  and  the  act  of  1811,  incorporating  the  Union 
Canal  Company,  greatly  increased  the  forfeiture  for  the 
exclusive  benefit  of  the  Company ;  yet  the  law  has  been  in- 
fringed in  the  face  of  day  by  the  open  and  notorious  vending 


29 


of  a  greater  quantity  of  tickets,  by  twenty  times,  than  the 
Company  have  ever  been  permitted  to  sell.  The  continual 
augmentation  of  lottery  offices  in  Philadelphia,  illustrates 
the  progressive  character  of  the  evil.  In  1809  three 
offices  only  are  recollected  to  have  existed  in  Philadel- 
phia; in  1827  the  number  was  computed  at  sixty;  in 
1831  they  were  ascertained  to  amount  to  one  hundred  and 
seventy-seven ;  and  now,  in  the  beginning  of  1833,  the 
number  may  be  estimated  at  above  two  hundred.  In  these 
offices  were  vended,  during  the  last  year,  tickets  in  420 
schemes,  whose  prizes  amount  to  53,136,930,  dollars,  as 
may  be  seen  by  the  subjoined  tabular  statement : 


States  authorizing  Lotteries. 

Amount  of  Prizes. 

Number  of  Schemes. 

New  Y(jrk, 

Virginia,     - 

Connecticut, 

Rhode  Island, 

Delaware  &,  North  Carouna,  (joint  grants,) 

Maryland, 

Delaware, 

$13,188,818 
10,010,153 
7,638,201 
7,184,486 
3,174,324 
2,028,162 
614,408 

73 

65 
81 
62 
34 
17 
29 

*Aggregate  for  11  months, 

Add  one-eleventh,  (to  complete  the  year,) 

$43,838,552 
3,985,322 

361 
33 

Aggregate  for  one  year. 

If  to  this  be  added  the  amount  of  the  Union 
Canal  Lotteries  drawn  within  the  same 
period, 

$47,823,874 
5,313,056 

394 
26 

Grand  Total,      ... 

$53,136,930 

420 

Of  these  420  schemes,  whose  tickets  have  been  con- 
stantly for  sale  in  Philadelphia  during  the  year  1832,  all 
are  expressly  prohibited  by  law,  except  the  26  issued 
by  the  Union  Canal  under  an  authority  which  almost 
every  one  admits  to  be  terminated.  Thus  the  people  of 
Pennsylvania  are  made  to  contribute  to  the  internal  im- 


*  Taken  from  an  accurate  list  of  schemes  up  to  December  1,  1832. 


30 

provements  of  New  York,  Virginia,  Connecticut,  Rhode 
Island,  Delaware  and  North  Carolina,  Maryland,  and  De- 
laware, as  well  as  to  pay  a  large  sum  to  a  Company  of  their 
own  state,  whose  grant  has  expired.  Nor  are  the  other 
states  in  which  there  are  large  cities,  exempt  from  similar 
burthens — each  is  taxed  for  the  local  convenience  of  the 
others,  in  proportion  to  the  facilities  presented  for  impo- 
sition. But  Pennsylvania,  by  being  the  great  mart  for 
nearly  all  the  lotteries  in  the  United  States,  has  reason  for 
stronger  and  louder  complaint.  In  defiance  of  all  her  legisla- 
tive prohibitions  of  foreign  lotteries,  her  citizens  are  annu- 
ally taxed  to  an  immense  amount — perhaps  for  a  church  in 
Connecticut,  or  a  rail  road  through  the  Dismal  Swamp,  or 
for  other  improvements  in  which  she  has  as  remote  a  pros- 
pect of  interest  or  advantage. 

The  amount  of  purchases  in  the  United  States,  we  can- 
not pretend  to  assert,  but  the  pecuniary  loss  per  week  to 
the  people  of  Philadelphia  may  be  estimated  at  thirty 
thousand  dollars.  This  sum  is  nearly  lost  to  the  people, 
for  the  only  pretended  benefit  accruing  to  the  cause  of 
physical  improvement  is  the  inconsiderable  sum  of  thirty 
thousand  dollars  per  annum,  supposed  to  be  applied  to  the 
purposes  of  internal  navigation.  It  follows  that  all  the 
pecuniary  distress — all  the  idleness  and  crime  superin- 
duced— are  inflicted  upon  the  citizens  of  Pennsylvania, 
without  the  hope  of  benefit  or  the  expectation  of  return. 

The  drawings  in  Philadelphia  are  frequent,  and  it  is 
believed  about  every  fortnight  throughout  the  year.  Wit- 
ness the  assemblages  at  the  arcade  on  these  occasions. 
Hundreds  of  wretched  persons  are  collected,  whose  in- 
tense anxiety  is  read  in  their  flushed  and  distorted  coun- 
tenances. Listen  to  the  loud  imprecations  and  blasphemy 
mingled  with  the  scarcely  audible  whisper  of  profane. 


31 

delirious,  and  intoxicating  joy,  upon  the  announcement  of 
a  prize  !  Follow  the  motley  throng  upon  dispersion,  and 
witness  the  agonizing  disappointment  and  despair  which 
ninety-nine  out  of  a  hundred  exhibit !  Yet  to  the  relief  of 
these  hope  soon  comes  in  the  chances  of  to-morrow.  They 
again  attend,  and  with  a  beating  pulse  and  palpitating 
heart,  hear — another  disappointment  in  another  blank! 
Are  not  such  spectacles  and  scenes  a  disgrace  to,  and  re- 
flection upon  humanity? 

In  the  two  hundred  lottery  offices  in  Philadelphia,  it  is 
estimated  that  there  may  be  fiwQ  or  six  hundred  persons 
employed  to  attend  to  the  business  of  the  respective  offices. 
These  persons  subsist  and  grow  rich  by  preying  upon  their 
deluded  fellow-citizens.  Boys  of  the  tenderest  age  are 
initiated  into  all  the  mysteries  of  the  craft,  which  are  those 
of  habitual  falsehood  and  schemes  of  rapine.  The  arts  that 
are  practised  to  induce  a  purchase,  and  the  cheats  devised 
for  robbing  the  wretched  victim  of  his  prize  w^hen  he  hap- 
pens to  draw  one,  are  too  notorious  to  need  elucidation  by 
example.  Nevertheless,  a  remarkable  instance  of  the  lat- 
ter shall  be  recorded.  A  person  residing  in  or  near  Ger- 
mantown  held  a  ticket  which  drew  the  capital  prize.  Be- 
fore the  fact  was  known  to  the  holder,  three  men  rode  out 
from  the  city,  and  so  frightened  the  man  by  representing 
to  him  that  his  ticket  was  forged,  that  he  was  induced  to 
relinquish  it.  The  men  returned  to  the  city,  obtained  the 
prize,  and  divided  it  amongst  them.  The  fraud  was  sub- 
sequently detected,  and  the  culprits  convicted  and  punish- 
ed.— It  would  be  endless  to  notice  all  the  species  of  petty 
frauds  which  are  daily  committed;  such  as  disposing  of 
five  and  seven  quarters  of  tickets,  selling  and  insuring 
tickets  which  have  long  since  been  drawn,  and  the  forgery 
of  tickets  and  prizes.  We  shall  here  give  an  instance  of 
the  last.      A  young  man  by  the  name  of  Ebenezer  Wright, 


32 

was  brought  before  the  Mayor  some  time  ago,  charged  with 
presenting  at  a  lottery  office^  to  be  cashed,  a  ticket  whose 
number  was  entitled  to  the  prize.  The  report  of  the  case 
is  contained  in  a  newspaper,  and  concludes  thus: — 
a  Wright  has  been  dealing  largely  in  lottery  tickets  for  a 
number  of  years  past,  by  which  he  has  sunk  a  considerable 
sum  of  money,  notwithstanding  on  one  occasion  he  drew  a 
prize  of  1500  dollars.  He  remarked  to  the  officer  who 
arrested  him,  that  lotteries  had  cheated  him  out  of  a  clever 
fortune,  and  he  thought  retaliation  no  more  than  justice." 

Tickets  are  so  subdivided  into  minute  parts,  that  12| 
cents  is  sufficient  to  purchase  a  chance.  Thus  a  lure  is 
held  out  to  youth  of  both  sexes  and  of  all  conditions,  and 
every  motive  is  presented  for  stealing  the  trivial  sum  which 
gives  an  opportunity  for  the  capital  prize.  Accordingly, 
we  find  the  apprentice  to  a  trade,  the  indented  girl,  and 
the  chimney  sweep,  among  the  adventurers.  The  venders, 
as  if  to  secure  customers  at  any  hazard,  have  standing  cur- 
rent accounts  with  girls  in  kitchens,  apprentices  to  trades, 
and  young  clerks  in  stores,  who,  from  month  to  month,  are 
debited  with  tickets,  and  credited  with  prizes.  The  result 
is  always  disastrous  in  the  privation  of  all  they  possessed, 
and  insolvency  to  a  frightful  amount.* 

From  such  a  melancholy  exhibition  of  the  abuses  of  lot- 
teries, and  the  number  of  individuals  sustained  and  enriched 
by  them,  the  inference  is  unavoidable  that  the  number  of 
adventurers  must  be  proportionably  great.  There  is  no 
means  of  ascertaining  with  any  desirable  precision,  what 
number  of  people  buy  lottery  tickets.  But  it  is  certain, 
and  may  be  relied  upon  as  an  incontestable  fact,  that  hun- 
dreds of  persons  in  Philadelphia  depend  upon  their  suc- 
cess in  the  lottery  for  their  subsistence,  and  pursue  no 

*  Vide  Note  4,  Appendix. 


33 

other  means  of  livelihood.  Can  it  be  believed,  that  in  % 
city  like  Philadelphia,  there  can  exist  so  much  crime,  dis- 
sipation, and  idleness?  In  a  city  where  honest  and  useful 
exertion  is  so  well  repaid,  where  benevolence  is  so  actively 
employed  to  promote  virtue  by  the  establishment  of  libra- 
ries and  schools — to  prevent  vice  by  the  institution  of  a 
Refuge  for  young  delinquents — and  to  arrest  its  career  by 
presenting  opportunities  of  reform  in  separate  imprison- 
ment? It  is  nevertheless,  true,  that  hundreds  pursue  no 
other  occupation  than  inspect  schemes,  purchase  tickets, 
and  attend  to  the  drawings,  with  the  other  venial  devices  for 
cozenage  and  fraud  which  are  its  necessary  concomitants. 
If  it  be  the  duty  of  government  to  encourage  idleness,  that 
duty  may  be  accomplished  through  the  instrumentality  of 
the  lottery.  If  the  objects  of  laws  be  to  introduce  domestic 
unhappinessand  every  diversity  of  criminal  propensity,  it  is 
apparent  that  the  lottery  will  well  achieve  those  objects. 

Upon  what  principle  can  enlightened  legislation,  having 
other  objects  and  duties,  permit  an  instrument  of  this  sort 
to  continue?  Is  it  for  the  value  of  the  money  raised,  or  is 
it  because  the  losses  incident  to  lottery  speculations  may 
be  considered  in  the  light  of  voluntary  taxation?  Its  de- 
luded victim  does  not  regard  it  as  a  tax,  but  as  the  road  to 
sudden  wealth,  dispensing  with  the  necessity  of  labour.  If 
it  be  called  taxation,  it  is  unjust  because  it  is  unequal,  and 
comes  chiefly  from  the  pockets  of  the  poorest  of  the  people. 
May  not  money  be  raised  by  a  mode  which  is  equal  in  its  ope- 
ration, which  takes  from  the  rich  man  in  proportion  to  his 
property,  and  which,  not  confined  to  the  necessitous,  will 
not  dry  up  the  means  of  future  support,  and  cut  off  the 
possibility  of  future  contribution?  If  the  physical  im- 
provement of  the  state  be  one  object  of  the  lottery,  let  us 
not  forget  what  more  than  countervails  the  benefit — the 
moral  deterioration  of  the  citizen.     If  revenue  be  its  ob- 

5 


M 

ject,  let  us  not  forget  that  larger  expenditures  will  be  re- 
quisite for  the  construction  of  new  alms-houses  and  new 
penitentiaries.  In  fine,  there  is  no  mode  of  raising  money 
which  is  so  unequal  and  oppressive — no  species  of  adven- 
ture in  which  the  chances  are  so  many  against  the  adven- 
turer— none  in  which  the  infatuation  attending  it  is  so 
powerful  and  engrossing — none  which  inflicts  so  much  dis- 
tress— and  none  which  produces  more  general  and  atro- 
cious criminality.  The  Committee  of  the  House  of  Com- 
mons, near  to  the  close  of  their  report,  thus  express  their 
opinion  of  the  lottery  as  a  measure  of  finance.  It  is  es- 
pecially true  as  applied  to  this  country. — "Your  Commit- 
tee are  conscious  that  they  are  far  from  having  exhausted 
all  the  grounds  which  might  be  urged,  that  the  lottery 
ought  not  to  be  resorted  to  as  a  financial  resource.  The 
reasoning  upon  them  appears  to  your  committee  to  apply 
with  peculiar  force,  to  the  situation,  the  habits,  and  all  the 
circumstances  of  a  great  manufacturing  and. commercial 
nation,  in  which  it  must  be  dangerous,  in  the  highest  de- 
gree, to  diff'use  a  spirit  of  speculation,  whereby  the  mind 
is  misled  from  those  habits  of  continued  industry  which 
insure  the  acquisition  of  comfort  and  independence,  to 
delusive  dreams  of  sudden  and  enormous  wealth,  which 
most  generally  end  in  abject  poverty  and  complete  misery.'' 
The  great  question  remains,  what  will  have  the  effect  of 
extirpating  so  prodigious  an  evil?  Experience  has  proved, 
both  in  England  and  America,  that  no  regulations  can  pal- 
liate its  mischiefs,  and  no  prohibitions,  though  armed  with 
penalties,  are  adequate  to  give  to  it  a  prescribed  restriction. 
If  the  act  of  1805,  passed  by  the  Assembly  of  Pennsyl- 
vania, for  preventing  insurances  by  forfeitures  be  coolly 
\  contemned — if  the  acts  of  1792  and  1811,  likewise  annex- 
ing pecuniary  penalties  to  the  sale  of  foreign  tickets  be 
inadequate  to  their  purpose,  what  confidence  is  to  he  re- 


35 

posed  in  fines  and  forfeitures?  Could  not  its  destruction  be 
effected  by  imposing  imprisonment  as  for  a  criminal  offence? 
Should  not  that  which  destroys  the  peace  of  families  and 
is  the  origin  of  every  criminal  excess,  be  itself  visited  by 
criminal  punishment?  We  commend  the  subject  to  the 
anxious  and  deliberate  attention  of  the  philanthropist  and 
patriot,  as  incalculably  momentous  to  the  present  well-being 
of  society,  and  to  the  future  prospects  of  the  country. 


APPENDIX. 


NOTEl.     Pages. 

We  quote  from  an  excellent  book,  designed  to  show  the  evils  of 
the  lottery,  a  passage  in  reply  to  the  allegation  often  made,  that  it  is 
not  a  game,  and  consequently  does  not  fall  under  the  denunciation 
against  ordinary  gambling,  The  book  is  in  the  form  of  a  dialogue, 
and  the  passage  quoted  is  in  reply  to  that  observation. 

*'  Are  not  the  silent  partners  in  a  game  as  much  interested  as  those 
who  are  manually  engaged  ?    Are  the  gamesters  upon  the  turf  less  in- 
terested for  not  riding  their  own  horses  ?    Every  ticket  holder  is  a 
partner  in  the  lottery  game,  and  the  managers  are  their  deputed  agents 
to  play  it.  But  the  managers  are  by  no  means  disinterested,  their  com- 
missions upon  the  amount  staked  being  a  powerful  stimulous  to  exer- 
tion; and  from  causes  which  I  have  not  descended  to  investigate,  they 
not  only  withhold  all  profits  from  those  who  furnish  the  capital,  but 
absorb  a  great  portion  of  the  capital  itself.     A  case  has  been  publicly 
stated  in  this  city,  and  not  disproved,  where  the  adventurers  in  a  single 
lottery  suffered  a  loss  of  nearly  one  hundred  thousand  dollars.     I 
make  no  allegation  of  fraud ;  but  that  men,  without  capital,  should 
realize  such  immense  profits  from  their  labour,  appears  irreconcilable 
with  fair  deahng.    I  know  not  what  so  essentially  constitutes  gaming, 
as  placing  property  at  the  disposition  of  hazard ;  and  in  no  case,  actual 
or  supposed,  can  it  be  more  completely  subjected  to  the  control  of 
chance,  than  in  the  lottery  wheel.     The  conclusion  then  is  just,  that 
managers,  to  protect  their  profession  from  suspicions  of  fraud  and  cir- 
cumvention, in  drawing  the  lot,  must  either  acknowledge  the  lot  to  be 
a  fair  game  of  chance,  or  by  denying  it  confirm  those  suspicions." 
*         *        ^t        It        * 
"  I  have  heard  you  with  patience  and  without  surprise ;  for  I  am 
no  stranger  to  the  influence  of  avarice  upon  principle,  nor  of  sophis- 


38 

try  required  to  *  make  the  worse  appear  the  better  reason ;'  and  with 
your  indulgence,  will  analyze  some  of  your  positions,  and  try  their 
validity  by  the  standard  of  rectitude.  Your  description  of  gaming  is 
correct ;  and  I  am  the  more  particularly  indebted  for  your  explanation, 
from  its  special  application  to  lottery  especulation  ;  for  you  have  urged 
no  reasons  for  the  prohibition  of  gaming,  that  do  not  apply  with  aggra- 
vated force  to  what  I  denominate  lottery  gambling.  You  mention  t(i/c- 
9168^  as  a  concomitant  of  gaming.  What  has  a  greater  tendency  to 
rerttit  exertions  than  the  expectation  of  independence  without  it  ?  You 
justly  insert  dissipation  in  your  list  of  evils  attached  to  gaming.  In 
what  other  game  is  the  subversion  of  reason  so  necessary  for  the  suc- 
cess of  the  players  as  in  that  of  lottery  ?  This  is  evinced  by  the  uni- 
ifcrm  support  given  by  lottery  dealers  to  the  licensing  system,  and  their 
opposition  to  the  temperance  reformation.  What  class  of  venders 
make  sale  of  so  many  lottery  tickets  as  retailers  of  ardent  spirits  ?  The 
winner  must  heat  for  his  good  luck,  and  the  loser  drown  his  grief  in 
the  bottle.  You  say  that  dishonesty  is  an  appurtenance  of  gaming.  I 
agree  with  you,  and  hope  to  coDvincc  you  that  no  game  so  necessarily 
engenders  this  vice  as  the  one  which  lottery  brokers  play  for  a  living. 
Be  not  disturbed  ;  I  bring  no  *  railing  accusation'  against  ihe  players, 
however  much  justice  might  inculpate  them.  My  business  is  with 
the  dishonest  principle  which  is  inseparably  interwoven  with  the  sys- 
tem. You  pertinently  annex  covetousness,  avarice,  and  disregard  to  the 
rights  of  others,  to  the  catalogue  of  delinquencies.  I  shall  consider 
them  all  one  family,  and  treat  them  as  kindred.  What  better  evidence 
can  be  produced  of  the  existence  of  dishonest  principles  in  men,  than 
their  coveting  their  neighbour's  goods,  without  paying  a  consideration? 
And  where  is  this  principle  inculcated  so  effectually  and  unblushingly 
as  in  lotteries  1  Here  adventurers  are  enticed  by  every  seductive  arti- 
fice to  risk  their  money.  The  allurements  of  sudden  wealth  are  dis- 
played in  their  most  dazzling  colours.  The  devout  aspiration  *  lead  us 
not  into  temptation,'  which  was  enjoined  by  Him  who  *  spake  as  never 
man  spake,'  is  little  heeded  by  the  adroit  and  interested  manager.  The 
ignorant  and  unwary  are  thus  entrapped,  and  made  the  willing  con- 
verts to  sordid  selfishness.  The  ties  of  social  interest  are  loosened, 
and  the  cords  of  reciprocal  good  will  severed.  Liberality  is  supplanted 
by  covetousness,  and  generosity  by  avarice  ;  and  the  gamester,  des- 
poiled of  all  the  benevolent  feelings  of  his  nature,  lives  for  himself 
alone.    He  envies  the  prosperous,  and  asperses  the  good.     He  well 


39 

knows  that  others  must  lose  what  he  hopes  to  win ;  and  the  climax  of 
his  hope  is  the  ruin  of  his  neighbours.  Such  unsocial  feelings  and  de« 
basing  affections  are  generated  by  the  lottery  system,  and  '■  grow  with 
its  growth  and  strengthen  with  its  strength.'  They  take  full  pos- 
session of  the  minds  of  adventurous  youth,  and  moral  honesty  *  has 
not  where  to  lay  its  head.' 

"  Do  you  doubt  these  truths,  sir?  attend  the  police  courts  of  our 
city,  and  witness  the  incipient  progress  of  these  principles  in  juvenile 
offenders.  See  their  early  depravity  nourished  by  the  poisonous  ali- 
ment of  gambling  speculation ;  and  if  I  am  not  misinformed,  lottery 
tickets  are  the  frequent  stakes  at  the  most  filthy  gambling  tables.  The 
contagion  infects  the  whole  community ;  neither  town,  village,  nor 
hamlet  is  free  from  the  contamination.  Mechanics  and  children  issue 
unauthorised  schemes,  and  to  *  conspire  to  defraud'  is  the  popular  test 
of  ingenious  merit,  and  has  been  deemed  legally  excusable  by  our 
courts  of  judicature.  Your  plea  in  support  of  the  lottery  system,  that 
its  existence  is  indispensable  for  the  accomplishment  of  objects  of 
public  utility,  I  contend  is  untenable.  The  equality  of  the  contribu- 
tions which  you  assert,  is  warranted  by  no  experience ;  the  reverse  is 
the  fact.  JVine-tenihs  of  the  amount  raised  by  lottery  for  public  im- 
provements, I  have  confidence  to  believe,  are  paid  by  the  poorer  class 
of  people,  to  whom  these  improvements  can  be  of  little  or  no  value." 


NOTE  2.     Page  25. 

Though  cases  in  sufficient  number  are  mentioned  in  the  text  for  tha* 
purposes  of  illustration,  we  cannot  consent  to  exclude  the  following.  In 
every  material  fact  these  likewise  are  believed  to  be  entirely  correct ; 
and  several  are  very  important. 

"  A  young  man,  clerk  in  a  highly  respectable  store  in  Market  street, 
with  a  salary  rather  exceeding  his  expenses,  was  in  the  habit  of  ex- 
pending the  excess  in  the  purchase  of  lottery  tickets  ;  the  brokers  be- 
came acquainted  with  him,  and  commenced  taking  tickets  to  him  at 
his  residence;  after  some  time  he  purchased  by  the  package,  leaving 
the  tickets  with  the  brokers,  they  to  pay  themselves  out  of  the  prizes, 
and  return  him  the  overplus — the  costs  generally  exceeding  the  amount 


40 

of  the  prizes,  he  gave  his  notes  for  the  differeace.  At  one  time,  being 
pressed  for  money,  he  borrowed  money  in  the  name  of  his  employers, 
expecting  to  refund  from  the  profits  of  a  lottery  to  draw  in  a  day  or 
two  ;  he  was  unsuccessful — his  employer  was  called  on  for  the  money 
borrowed — discovered  the  transaction,  and  dismissed  him  from  his 
employment — he  was  sued  by  one  of  the  brokers,  and  took  the 
benefit,  indebted  to  lottery  brokers  about  g3,000." 

"  A  respectable  mechanic,  a  freeholder,  and  supposed  to  be  well  off, 
was  in  the  habit  of  purchasing  occasionally  a  ticket,  drew  a  prize,  and 
afterwards  increased  his  purchases.  He  was  beset  by  the  brokers  at 
every  drawing  of  a  lottery  to  take  the  tickets  remaining  on  hand — 
sometimes  the  loss  would  not  be  great,  but  generally,  there  was  almost 
a  total  loss  ;  on  some  occasions  he  was  stopped  by  brokers  on  Sundays 
when  about  going  to  church  with  his  family — they  stated  that  news  of 
a  drawing  would  be  in  by  the  mail  of  that  day.  He  continued  this 
about  two  years,  and  then  stopped,  with  a  loss  of  about  gl2,000." 

"  About  four  years  ago,  a  young  man  entered  into  the  employ  of  a 
respectable  cabinet-maker  in  this  city,  as  a  journeyman — in  which 
i3.ituation  he  continued  about  two  years,  conducting  himself  while  un- 
cler  the  notice  of  his  employer  with  great  propriety.  His  industry  and 
application  to  business  were  such  that  his  weekly  earnings  were  gene- 
rally greater  than  those  of  any  other  person  hired  in  the  establishment. 
The  exemplary  manner  in  which  he  conducted  gained  him  the  esteem 
and  confidence  of  his  employer,  who  frequently  entrusted  large  sums 
of  money  to  his  care — and  his  weekly  bills  for  work  were  made  out 
with  so  much  accuracy  and  fidelity  that  they  seldom  needed  any  cor- 
rection. Thus  he  continued  for  a  considerable  length  of  time,  giving 
entire  satisfaction  both  in  the  performance  of  his  work,  and  also,  in  the 
sobriety  and  steadiness  of  his  deportment.  At  length  it  was  observed 
that  his  dress  became  shabby  and  neglected,  and  he  was  mostly  very 
bare  of  money — so  that  it  was  a  subject  of  surprise  and  wonder  what 
he  could  do  with  his  money.  One  article  of  apparel  after  another  dis- 
appeared, until  he  was  left  almost  without  clothing,  and  eventually  he 
sold  his  last  hat  for  a  dollar.  Suspicions  had,  before  this  time,  been 
excited,  that  he  had  fallen  into  some  evil  habits,  and  it  was  found  that 
the  proceeds  of  his  hat  were  expended  in  the  purchase  of  a  lottery 
ticket!     Here,  the  sad  mystery  of  his  poverty  was  at  once  unveiled  ; — 


41 

his  earnings  had  been  squandered  in  this  worst  species  of  gambling. 
Again  and  again  he  had  lost,  and  still  seduced  by  the  vain  hope  of  re- 
trieving his  ruined  circumstances,  in  the  desperation  which  such  a 
course  usually  leads  to,  he  determined  to  make  one  more  attempt — to 
**  try  his  luck"  once  more,  and,  in  order  to  do  so,  he  sold  the  only  hat 
he  had  to  wear.  But  as  is  usual  with  all  lottery  gamblers,  he  lost 
again  ;  and,  dreadful  to  relate,  in  the  extremity  to  which  this  wicked 
system  generally  brings  its  deluded  victims,  he  was  tempted  to  com- 
mit FORGERY.  The  principle  of  honesty  and  sense  of  shame,  already 
weakened  by  the  debasing  practice  of  dealing  in  lottery  tickets,  proved 
too  feeble  to  withstand  the  temptation,  and  he  forged  a  check  for  two 
hundred  and  fifty  dollars  !  Detection  soon  followed  the  commission 
-of  this  dishonest  act — he  was  tried,  convicted,  and  sentenced  to  soli- 
tary confinement  in  the  penitentiary — where  he  now  deplores  his  first 
yielding  to  the  purchase  of  a  lottery  ticket,  which  has  blasted  his  hopes 
and  prospects  for  life,  and  stamped  a  character,  once  fair  and  honoura- 
ble, with  infamy  and  disgrace." 

"A  young  man  about  nineteen  years  of  age  entered  a  lottery 
office  in  Exchange  street,  on  Monday  morning,  and  bought  part 
of  a  lottery  ticket,  which  he  paid  for  with  a  pair  of  new  gloves 
and  a  black  silk  handkerchief.  A  person  who  kept  his  office  in 
part  of  the  same  room  noticed  the  circumstance,  and  after  the  young 
man  retired,  he  advanced  and  inquired  of  the  vender  at  what  price 
he  had  taken  those  articles.  The  vender  answered  that  he  had 
allowed  forty  cents  for  the  gloves  and  about  sixty  for  the  handker- 
chief. Being  a  judge  of  the  articles,  and  knowing  that  their  estimated 
value  could  not  be  less  than  three  dollars,  he  took  them  from  the  lot- 
tery vender  and  proceeded  into  Washington  street,  with  a  determina- 
tion to  find  the  young  man  and  ascertain  whether  his  suspicion  that 
they  had  been  stolen  was  well  founded.  After  showing  them  at  seve- 
ral stores,  they  were  recognized  and  the  young  man  identified.  When 
charged  with  having  fraudulently  obtained  the  property,  the  young 
man  made  a  full  confession,  and  stated  that  he  had  been  in  the  habit 
of  depredating  upon  his  employer's  property  for  some  time,  in  order 
to  raise  money  to  buy  lottery  tickets.  What  has  been  done  with  the 
delinquent  we  have  not  been  informed.  This  is  another  glaring  and 
startling  instance  of  the  mischievous  consequences  resulting  from  lot- 
teries.    Here  is  a  young  man  probably  ruined  for  life — whose  charac- 

6 


42 

ter  was  unblemished — who  was  tempted  to  a  course  of  vice  and  crime, 
merely  to  buy  a  lottery  ticket — to  make  his  fortune !  Let  young  men 
take  warning  from  his  example." 

"  To . 


"  Sir — In  compliance  with  your  request  to  furnish  you  with  any 
information  I  might  possess  of  the  injurious  effects  of  lotteries,  I  beg 
leave  to  state,  that  I  was  intimately  acquainted  for  many  years  with 

Mr. ;  that  he  was  an  excellent  mechanic,  well  acquainted 

with  his  business,  which  appeared  to  be  prosperous  and  was  pretty 
extensive. 

"  He  died  in  March,  1829,  and  I  was  called  upon  to  assist  at  the 
examination  of  his  papers,  and  became  one  of  his  administrators.  We 
found  a  large  number  of  lottery  tickets,  and  his  estate  was  entirely 
insolvent ;  those  creditors  who  were  not  secured  by  judgments  or 
mortgages  got  nothing. 

"  1  have  no  hesitation  in  saying,  that  I  think  the  lotteries  were  the 
principal  cause  of  his  ruin.     He  left  a  family  entirely  unprovided  for, 
and  his  losses  in  lottery  tickets  must  have  been  very  great,  and  I  can- 
not in  any  other  way  account  for  the  great  deficiency  in  his  estate. 
"I  remain,  very  respectfully,  yours, 

J.  R." 

"  A  coloured  boy,  in  the  family  of ,  was  tempted  to  gamble  in 

the  lottery.  He  stole  six  dollars  from  a  white  servant  girl  residing  in 
the  family,  and  continued  his  lottery  speculations  till  he  drew  five 
hundred  dollars.  This  led  to  his  detection,  when  other  frauds  were 
brought  to  light." 

"  A  person  of  the  name  of  W drew  a  prize  of  forty  thousand 

dollars,  and  several  smaller  ones.  He  continued  to  purchase  in  the 
lottery  until  he  lost,  not  only  all  he  had  gained,  but  failed  seventy 
thousand  dollars  in  debt." 

« "W ,  a  dentist,  lost  twenty  thousand  dollars  by  a  long  course 

of  gambling  in  the  lottery  in  connexion  with  C .  Both  were  com- 
pletely ruined." 

"  A  pocket  book  containing  the  following  letter  was  lost  in  this  town 


43 

yesterday.  The  letter  was  not  sealed.  The  gentleman,  into  whose 
hands  it  fell,  opened  it,  for  the  purpose  of  ascertaining  to  whom  the 
pocket  book  belonged.  The  letter  contained  thirteen  dollars  of  good 
Portland  money,  bound  on  its  way  to  the  principal  lottery  office  in 
town,  to  purchase  tickets. 

"  The  gentleman  believed  as  we  do,  that  the  publication  of  the  letter 
would  do  good,  and  therefore  put  it  into  our  hands.  The  owner  has 
been  found,  and  has  received  his  pocket  book,  letter,  and  money; 
and  we  think  it  not  improbable  that  before  the  day's  paper  goes  to 
press,  the  money  will  be  in  the  hands  of  Mr.  Mudge  &  Co.,  for 
tickets.  This  individual  stated  that  this  thirteen  dollars  was  all  the 
money  he  had  in  the  world,  except  nine  shillings. — Portland  Daily 
Advertiser. 

"  Portland,  Sept.  23,  1832. 

"  Mr,  Mudge  &  Co : — Being  brought  from  affluence  to  a  state  of 
absolute  need,  and  one  of  the  aggravating  kind ;  three  years  ago 
I  was  in  possession  of  an  elegant  farm  in  New  Hampshire,  Cooa 
county;  it  was  considered  to  be  worth  g3,000.  One  of  my  neigh- 
bours, by  the  name  of  Smith,  had  81,000,  and  proposed  to  go  to 
trading.  I,  not  being  very  well,  consented  to  mortgage  my  farm  for 
j^l,500,  for  two  years.  Said  Smith  took  his  money  and  mine  and 
went  to  Boston  to  purchase  the  goods,  and  for  me  to  get  a  store  in 
readiness  for  the  reception  of  the  goods  at  the  appointed  time,  but  no 
Smith  returned.  Two  weeks  more  passed  away,  but  they  were  very 
long, — no  Smith  came  then.  I  began  to  be  exceedingly  troubled.  I 
went  to  Boston:  he  had  not  been  there.  I  pursued  him  to  St. 
Marks,  East  Florida — gave  it  up — never  heard  a  sound  of  him  since. 
I  rented  the  farm  ever  since.  It  is  very  much  out  of  repair,  not  being 
able  to  do  much  on  account  of  my  severe  loss  of  what  I  gained  by  the 
sweat  of  my  brow.  Smith  has  been  the  cause  of  my  family  experi- 
encing months  of  pain  and  sorrow.  I  have  a  wife,  five  children,  and 
aged  parents,  and  a  decrepid  sister,  all  who  look  to  me  for  their 
support.  My  parents  must  go  to  the  poorhouse  in  spite  of  all  that  I 
can  do  ;  yes,  that  must  be  their  doom.  My  property  is  reduced  to 
one  cow  and  pig ;  and  nothing  to  subsist  upon  this  winter  of  any  con- 
sequence. I  have  been  to  Boston  this  season  to  see  what  I  could 
do.  I  received  a  letter  from  the  man  that  I  mortgaged  my  place  to  ; 
says  he,  I  have  been  to  see  your  family  ;  they  are  all  well,  but  full  of 
trouble.     If  you  will  get  the  S  1,500  in  six  weeks  after  the  redemption 


44 

is  out,  you  may  have  the  place  again,  providing  you  will  get  sufficient 
bondmen  for  the  interest.  If  you  can  get  the  g  1,500  sounded  and  re- 
«ounded  in  my  ear.  I  took  what  I  had  earned  this  season,  went  to 
the  lottery  office,  and  purchased  S57  worth  of  tickets  of  your  lottery. 
It  so  happened,  to  my  ill-fortune,  that  I  drawed  only  gll  from  the  57. 
There  went  my  summer's  work.  Then  I  was  down  again.  Then 
the  thoughts  of  maintaining  my  family  this  winter  rushed  on  me  in 
torrents. — Thought  I,  to  Portland  I  will  go,  and  from  there  home. 
As  I  came  into  the  city  I  concluded  to  tarry  awhile.  After  I  took 
lodgings  this  thought  came  into  my  head ;  whether  good  or  not,  I 
know  not;  but  I  hope  it  will  prove  a  benefit  to  me,  viz :  to  give  you 
a  true  detail  of  my  situation,  and  inclose  what  money  I  have;  and  if 
you  could  work  it  so  that  1  could  draw  a  little  something  to  support  my 
family  thia  winter,  if  nothing  more,  this  little  sum  of  money  that  I 
have  inclosed  in  this  paper  will  be  a  productive  one.  There  is  not 
one  person  on  earth  that  is  more  needy  of  fourteen  or  fifteen  htip4red 
dollars  than  poor  me — not  more  deserving.  Now  I  pray  yo\i  to  ad- 
here to  my  petition,  if  you  can  assist  any  way  to  do  it,  so  that  I  can 
go  home  to  my  family  with  a  joyful  heart.  I  never  will  divulge  it 
during  life;  no  one  but  God  in  heaven  knows  what  my  mind  on  this  sub- 
ject is.  It  is  dire  necessity  that  induces  me  to  write  you  thus.  I 
never  thought  of  such  a  thing  before,  and  hope  you  will  take  no  offence. 
Please  to  drop  a  line  in  the  post  office  immediately,  for  I  want  to 
know  my  fate.  Do,  I  entreat  you  to  do  the  best  for  me  that  you  can. 
Tou  say  that  you  will  warrant  nine  prizes  in  twenty  tickets ;  it  is  a 
mystery  to  me ;  but  you  know  best.  You  can  put  the  capital  prize  in 
quarters,  and  give  rae  all  the  chance  you  can,  says  your  distressed 

E.  H.  H . 

"  Please  to  drop  a  line  in  the  Portland  Post-office,  when  to  come 
for  the  tickets.  I  purchase  quarters  in  the  three  thousand  dollars  lot- 
tery. I  want  you  to  let  me  have  all  you  can  for  fifteen  dollars.  I  am 
an  entire  stranger  in  this  place  ;  every  thing  looks  very  dismal  to  me. 
Cold  winter  is  fast  approaching.  When  I  look  home,  0,  my  heart 
aches. 

"I  don't  see  why  twenty  prizes  don't  coine  in  twenty  tickets,  as 
they  are  all  put  into  the  wheel  at  once,  or  as  likely  not  to  be  one  prize 
in  a  package.  Losses,  writs,  and  executions,  and  doctors'  bills,  have 
eat  up  four  thousand  dollars  for  me  ;  but  if  I  could  get  the  farm  back 
again,  I  think  I  should  be  a  happy  man  again. 


43 

**  I  want  you  to  let  me  have  tickets  that  you  know  will  draw  some- 
thing— I  know  you  can — because  I  want  to  go  home  soon  and  make 
them  all  rejoice.     Pray  don't  mention  what  I  have  wrote  to  you." 

"  A  gentleman,  worth  considerable  money,  commenced  the  lottery 
business  in  this  city,  about  two  years  since,  and  did  a  very  large  busi- 
ness, and  risked  a  great  many  tickets  for  himself,  so  many  that  he 
stopped  with  the  loss  of  all  he  commenced  with,  and  much  indebted  to 
the  managers.  A  friend  of  this  gentleman  called  on  the  managers  to 
see  what  arrangement  could  be  made  about  the  balance  due.  The 
managers  very  readily  informed  him,  that  they  should  not  trouble  Mr. 
— —  for  what  he  owed  them,  as  *  he  had  not  only  ruined  himself,  but 
had  broke  more  men  than  any  other  vender  in  so  short  a  time.'  " 


NOTE  3.     Page  25. 

The  following  Table  of  insolvent  persons  who  have  sustained  losses 
by  dealing  in  lottery  tickets,  is  made  from  the  Records  of  the  Insol- 
vent Court  of  Philadelphia,  by  inspection  of  the  petitions  themselves, 
deliberately  sworn  or  affirmed  to  by  the  petitioners.  One  case  only  is 
given  from  distinct  recollection,  as  having  occurred  in  1826  ;  a  few 
are  given  in  1828  and  1829 ;  but  in  the  last  three  years,  to  wit,  in 
1830,  1831,  and  1832,  a  regular  examination  has  been  instituted,  and 
in  those  years,  the  list  is  believed  to  be  complete.  It  may  be  observed 
that  many  losses  are  occasioned  by  purchases  of  lottery  tickets  where 
no  mention  is  made  of  them  in  the  petitions,  but  the  fact  is  frequently 
elicited  by  examinations  at  the  bar.  Such  cases,  which  are  numerous, 
are  of  course  not  included  in  the  table. 

LOSSES  ON  LOTTERY  TICKETS  BY  INSOLVENT  DEBTORS. 

Thomas  Hope,  Petition  for  March  term,  1826,  No.  77,        About  $50,000 

Samuel  Patterson,  "         "         "         "      1828,  "  119,  Amount  not  known 

Thomas  Hope,  «         "     Sept       "      1828,  "     98,  $200 

William  Diehl,  "         "         "         "      1828,"     46,  returns  the  following 

lottery  brokers  as  his  creditors,  to  wit : — 

N.  &  S.  Sylvester's  note,  $1294  82 

John  Francis,  book  account,  82  24 

John  Reeder,         do.  32  87 

P.  J.  Decker,         do.  32  47 

Robertson  &  Little,  book  account,      13  00 
Robert  T.  Bicknell,        do.  27  31 


The  whole  amount  is,        $1482  71 


46 


Martin  Dubs,  Junior, 

Petition  for  June  term,  1829,  No.  48, 

$3900 

Thomas  Desilver, 

M                U             U                 H 

1829,"    45,  returns  A.  M.Nutt 

and  N.  Sylvester,  amount  not  remembered. 

Henry  Gebler, 

PeUtion  for  June  term,  1829,  No.  61, 

$4275 

Robert  B.  Carson. 

U                 U            M             U 

1829,  "    21, 

About  800 

George  Weaver, 

«        "  Sept  " 

1829,  No.  336, 

between   fifteen 

and  twenty 

thousand  dollars 

Thomas  M'Kean  Fim«ton,      u        u    u        u 

1829,  No.  103, 

At  least  200 

John  Arentrue, 

u           u      u           u 

1829,  "     14, 

$700 

John  Arentrue, 

"         "  March  •* 

1830,  «       7, 

Actual  loss  700 

John  C.  Bickham, 

U                MUM 

1830,  **     15,  Am't  not  known 

WiUiam  Peitman, 

U                tt            H            U 

1830,  "  126, 

U             tt               u 

Edward  Lehmanowsky, 

U                 (1             U             U 

1830,  "  127, 

About  $450 

Lewis  Lehmanowsky, 

M                 U             M             U 

1830,  "  128, 

About  450 

George  Apple, 

"    June    •• 

1830,  -     11, 

About  1600 

John  Dolby, 

u            u         u         u 

1830,  «     75, 

About  100 

Joseph  B.  Dengan, 

M                 U            U            U 

1830,  •*     77, 

Nearly  1400 

John  King, 

u            u         u         u 

1830,  -  168, 

550 

James  Richman,  Jr. 

ti             u          u          u 

1830,  "  252, 

$1420  75 

Peter  S.  WUtbohn, 

u            u         u         u 

1830,  "  319, 

About  4000 

C.  P.  Yard, 

u           u         u         u 

1830,  •»  329, 

1263 

Alexander  Scott, 

"         •*  Sept    " 

1830,  •*  218, 

350 

Thomas  Webster, 

U                U        U               M 

1830,  "  263, 

About  400 

David  Babneus, 

"    Dec   « 

1830,  "      7, 

More  than  2500 

Charles  L.  Cook, 

t           u        u        u 

1830,  "     44, 

Nearly  400 

George  M'Lcod, 

u           u        u        u 

1830,  "  130,  Heavy  and  repeated 

losses 

Joseph  Brown, 

PetiUon  for  March  term,  1831,  «    27, 

About  $100 

John  S.  Furey, 

tt                U                tt                u 

1831,  "     73, 

About  2000 

George  White, 

M                U                tt                tt 

1831,  "  200,  A  fine  for  selling 
foreign  lottery  tickets,  $2000 

Allen  Green, 

«        «     June      « 

1831,  Na  88,  Amount  not  known 

Timothy  T.  Cutter, 

tt                 U                 W                 tt 

1831,  "     52, 

About  75 

Aaron  F.  Kille  &,  Co. 

tt                tt                U                tt 

1831,  "  114, 

At  least  $5000 

Aqtiila  Newbem, 

tt                 U                 M                 U 

1831,  «  152, 

200 

Augustus  G.  Richards, 

tt                 U                 tt                 tt 

1831,  "  171, 

About  500 

Nathaniel  Sylvester, 

tt               tt               u               u 

1831,  "  199,  Returns  the  foUow- 

ing  debts  as  due  to  him 

,  viz. 

George  Weaver  for  lottery  tickets. 

$4500  00 

Thomas  Desilver, 

do. 

2700  00 

Henry  Wendell, 

do. 

240  00 

James  Farthing, 

do. 

250  00 

George  Apple, 

do. 

140  00 

J.  L.  Hammond, 

da 

250  00 

L.  Tayntor, 

do. 

21  00 

J.  Howell, 

do. 

7  00 

George  K.  Lentz, 

do. 

13  40 

John  Farrar, 

do. 

48  79 

John  Norvel, 

da 

21  00 

John  TiUinghast, 

da 

11  00 

S.  Blair, 

da 

10  00 

Wm.  B.  Hart, 

da  and  cash  lent,  1100  00 

Edward  Barry, 

da 

100  00 

George  R.  Leiper, 

da 

22  00 

Aaron  Clements, 

do. 

100  00 

The  whole  amount  due  him  is     $9534  19 


4T 


Brought  forward,         Amount  due  N.  Sylvester, 
The  following  lottery  brokers  are  creditors : 

Yates  &  M'Intyre  of  Philadelphia,     $7000  00 
Robertson  &  Little,  900  00 

Yates  (fcM'Intyre  of  New  York,  800  00 


Due  his  creditors,  $8700  00 


$9534  19 


8700  00 


$18234  19 

Several  of  the  debtors  have  been  insolvent,  and  are  returned  in 
this  list. 

A.  J.  Cozens,  Petition  for  Sept  term,  1831,  No.  52,  About  $150 
Joseph  Eyquen,  "  "  "  "  1831,"  87,  Amount  not  known 
WiUiam  Frost,  u  u  u  u  1831,  "  100,  At  least  $600 
William  Hart,                      «         ♦»       «       "      1831,  "  131,  says  that  he  lost  two 

or  three  hundred  dollars 

B.  W.  Birge,  Petition  for  March  term,  1832,  No.    9,    Owes    Yates    & 

M'Intyre,  $25000 

Paine  &  Burgess,         5000 


In  all,     30000 


Jacob  Hazzeza, 
Richard  M.  Stockton, 
John  G.  Weikel, 

Edmund  Barnard, 
John  H.  Bryant, 
Joseph  P.  Cloud, 
A.  G.  Davis, 
John  Hofl&ier, 
Henry  T.  Rees, 


J.  Hartwell, 
Jacob  Hazzeza, 
William  Clinton, 


Jtme 


Sept. 


1832,  No.  80,    Amount  not  known 
1832,  «  185,  $5000 

1832,  "  203,  Has  lost  considerable 
sums  in  tickets  drawn  blanks 
1832,  No.  5,  $98 

1832,  "    25,  $4  62J 

1832,  »♦     47,    Amount  not  known 
1832,  "     57,        «         u        « 
1832,  "  117,         «*  «         u 

^1832,  "  236,  The  chief,  and  in  fact 
only  cause  of  his  present  embarrassment,  is  owing  to  his 
having  dealt  to  a  very  considerable  amount  in  lottery  tickets, 
and  thereby  sustaining  gi-eat  losses. 

Petition  for  Dec.  term,  1832,  No.  97,  $90  50 

"         "      «       "      1832,  "  102,  $36 

«  a  u  u  1832,  «  37,  Has  lost  by  having  lot- 
tery  tickets  left  on  hand,  about  $3000  00 
He  oweg  Yates  &  M'Intyre,  503  43 

Robertson  &  Little,  1088  53 

J.  J.  Robinson,  2  00 

JohnHarker,  20  00 


In  all,    $4613  96 


NOTE  4.     Pago  32. 


The  following  extract  from  a  recent  Presentment  made  in  New 
York,  may  be  here  quoted  in  confirmation  of  the  text : 


48 

*'  The  Grand  Jury  cannot  separate  without  calling  the  attention  of 
the  Court  to  the  subject  of  lotteries.  The  evils  arising  from  this 
source  are  greater  than  at  any  former  period,  and  fall  principally  upon 
the  poorer  and  less  informed  portion  of  the  community.  In  the  year 
1824  there  were  but  from  eight  to  ten  dealers  in  lottery  tickets  in  the 
city,  while  at  this  time  there  are  one  hundred  and  forty-seven,  and 
some  of  our  principal  streets  are  literally  disfigured  by  their  advertise- 
ments. Citizens  and  strangers  are  interrupted  by  boys  and  men  thrust- 
ing lottery  advertisements  into  their  hands  as  they  pass  through  our 
streets. 

*         *         If         *         m         if 

"  In  order  to  understand  some  of  the  evils  arising  from  the  sale  of 
foreign  lottery  tickets,  we  would  specify,  the  running  of  expresses,  the 
mispayment  of  prizes,  the  forgery  of  numbers,  fraudulent  drawers,  non- 
payment of  prizes,  and  last,  not  least,  policying.  On  this  subject  we 
would  say,  there  are  some  offices  in  this  city  that  on  the  day  the  ac- 
count of  the  drawers  is  received  frona  abroad,  are  crowded  with  per- 
sons who  have  paid  from  three  dollars  to  some  shillings  each,  for  a 
policy  against  certain  numbers  being  drawn.  These  persons  are  mostly 
servants  or  poor  people,  who  spend  their  time  and  means  in  this  way, 
affording  great  temptation  after  they  have  policied  away  their  own 
property  to  use  that  of  others.  In  all  these  points  we  have  sufficient 
evidence  to  make  this  Presentment. 

"  One  of  our  number  states,  that  during  the  late  epidemic  he  had 
charge  of  a  district  in  the  upper  part  of  the  city  for  the  purpose  of  at- 
tending to  the  wants  of  the  poor,  and  in  conversing  with  some  of  the 
destitute,  he  learned  that  they  had  spent  their  earnings  in  procuring 
lottery  tickets.  Another  states,  that  he  knew  an  individual  that  ex- 
pended all  his  earnings  (above  paying  his  necessary  expenses)  for  a 
year,  which  amounted  to  several  hundred  dollars.  Another  says,  that 
not  long  since  it  came  to  his  personal  knowledge  that  a  person  was 
intrusted  with  about  seven  hundred  dollars  to  take  to  another  part  of 
the  country,  but  in  this  city  he  was  induced  to  purchase  a  ticket,  which 
was  a  blank.  He  then  ventured  more  to  gain  what  was  lost,  and  went 
on  till  all  was  gone  ;  the  last  sum  he  spent  was  two  hundred  dollars  at 
one  time  for  tickets  in  a  fit  of  desperation. 

"  If  such  a  mass  of  facts  respecting  this  evil  has  come  to  the  per- 
sonal knowledge  of  so  small  a  number  of  individuals  as  compose  this 
Grand  Jury,  what  must  be  the  sum  total  of  misery  caused  by  the  prac- 
tice complained  of  V^ 


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